Wings Redux
by Myra the Sark
Summary: Retyped from the original. Mostly the same, but with differences. I decided to put the rest of the chapters I had written for the heck of it. I decided to take this out of the crossover section. 1, it doesn't really have much to do with Maximum Ride, and 2, I'm getting sick of it being ignored. No longer being continued.
1. Chapter I

**Wings**

ウィングス

"Alright guys, let's make camp," Chase said.

"_Finally!_" one of his friends—Bren—exclaimed. "We've been walking all day!"

"Yeah Chase, don't you think you're going a bit overboard?" Jinja asked. "Something's gonna happen to us eventually if we keep going all day like this."

"I'm with Princess on this one," Dax said.

"_Don't call me that!_"

"Please my friends, do not fight," Beyal said in an attempt to stop the oncoming scuffle.

"Beyal's right. Jin, calm down; Dax, knock it off. Let's just go to sleep."

* * *

A single figure crept along the edge of a campsite in a small forest by a town, studying the occupants. Five teens, all appearing well-traveled. The figure smiled faintly, but not out of kindness.

He raised a communicator to his mouth, and said, "I've found five new subjects, looking to be compatible to be avian hybrids."

"Roger that. We'll send a transport."

Before clicking the communicator off, the figure slide a puck-like device, which released knockout gas in the area of the campsite. All five teenagers were in a deep sleep within seconds.

* * *

Chase didn't know why he had to force his eyes open. When he did, he instantly realized he was inside a building. _Oh no—STORM didn't capture us, did they?_

Something told him it wasn't STORM, however.

Wherever he was, it was dimly lit—only one lamp was on, hanging from the ceiling. As his eyes adjusted, tried crawling forward a little, but his face smashed into something cold and hard. He felt at it, and with a jolt, realized that they were bars. And after examining his surroundings more carefully, he realized he was in a cage.

A dog cage. Kanine Kamper brand, size large.

"Bren?" he spoke out. "Jinja? Beyal? Dax?"

He heard a groan, and saw a movement. "Where the crag are we?" he heard Dax groan. Then, "Hey, my Cores are gone!"

Chase's hand instantly flew to where he kept Lock and Evo's cores, and realized that they were gone too. He saw Beyal sit up—distinguishable by his white hair. "Where are we?" he asked no one in particular.

"No clue," Chase responded. "But we're in dog cages."

"_Huh?!_" Now Jinja flew up, smashing her head on the cage roof in the meantime.

Bren also looked up, his glasses lopsided on his face. "Cages?" he asked, feeling above him and in front of him. He started to sound panicked. "But how!?"

"Someone got us," Chase explained. "Don't know who."

The controller was then aware that it wasn't just his friends in the room. He looked to one side and saw what looked like a little kid staring at him. "Uh, hi," he said, crawling forward. The kid mumbled something incomprehensible. "What's your name?" he continued. "Mine's Chase."

More murmuring. And now that Chase looked closer, he saw that the kid was covered in scaly patches, as in _scales_, like a fish's. Not to mention finned ears, he noted. It didn't look very pleasant.

The boy never said anything in response, but he looked scared, and backed against his cage side that was farthest from Chase.

Any further conversation was halted when suddenly a door opened, letting light flood in. Their eyes narrowed against the sudden whiteness, and three men wearing white lab coats walked in. "Alright you lot," he said in a voice like talking to animals, "Time for your first treatments."

One picked Chase's crate up and moved it onto a flatbed cart, and the other two did the same with his friends. They then started wheeling it down a hallway.

* * *

They passed through a seemingly-endless hallway, by doors and other scientists, some who stopped to look at them curiously. Jinja didn't know what was going on. When Chase had said that they were in dog cages, she had flung herself up, not believing it—until she banged her head on the roof.

The guy wearing the white lab coat stopped, and turned into a large room with several metal tables, and some other scientists. The side of her cage opened, and Jinja suddenly found herself being roughly shoved onto the table, and screwed her to the said table—with metal bars. _This _can't_ be good,_ she thought as she observed the same happen with the others.

"Let us go right now!" Chase demanded, though all he got in response was to have his head grabbed by his hair, and banged roughly against the table. Dax tried to kick his way out, but that only got all of their ankles screwed onto the tables as well. Five of the scientists—one in particular with black hair and creepy-seeming bright-green eyes—approached one of them each—all holding a syringe filled with a bright green liquid that looked almost luminous. When Jinja saw Bren start struggling wildly—though in vain—she copied. If the geek was acting like that, then the stuff was probably poison or something. The scientist that had approached her then grabbed her by her hair and smashed her head down onto the table as well. She went slack and the world blurred at the edges of her vision. As she was dizzy, the man gripped the syringe and jammed it into a vein. The same happened to the others. And as he pushed the handle down, Jinja felt nothing, but as soon as he took it out…

The room exploded.

Violent red, blue and green clouded her vision as she heard some kind of high-pitched sound. Whatever that stuff was, it surely felt like poison, burning like liquid white-hot fire.

All of them shared one thought: _What did he do? It hurts _so_ much! Make it stop, _please_ MAKE IT STOP!_

Fractured memories and broken images flashed through her mind. Vaguely she was aware that she heard shrieking—might've been her, might've been all of them—and everything seemed to go white…and then black; she sunk into much-welcomed unconsciousness.

* * *

**First chapter of the re-typed Wings. There will be a few grammar and spelling changes, maybe a few extra chapters here and there as I go and a few extra paragraphs, but other than that it's still the same story. Enjoy! ~Myra**


	2. Chapter II

When Bren next came-to, the burning sensation was gone and he felt normal. He didn't know how long he was out for, but his mind was all foggy. That was with no doubt the worst thing that had ever happened to him. He wondered what the vial contained—it must have been something very strong and undiluted.

When his senses came back, he realized he was in a new room, _not _in a cage. His friends were all sprawled out around the room. "Guys?" he asked, suddenly worried. His voice sounded twice as weak. His relief had no bounds when he heard Chase groan.

"What happened?" he mumbled raspily, sitting up.

"And what the crag was that green stuff?" Dax asked, voice still holding traces of pain. Bren stood and took a few steps forward, but a sharp pain in his back made him stumble. This was certainly nothing compared to what he had felt prior, but it was like something was developing _inside_ his back, struggling to get free.

Another shard of pain shot up Bren's back again, but more powerful than the first—it sent him falling forward onto the floor. But what was it?

"Beyal? Jinja? Are you both okay?" Chase asked.

"I am fine, but…" Beyal trailed off, both his gray-blue eyes and voice thick with pain. "I do not understand why those people would do s-such a horrible thing to us." Bren felt anger rise up—out of all of them, Beyal was definitely the _last_ one who deserved to go through something like that.

"Me either, but whoever they are, they're bad news," Jinja said, also sitting up. She jerked suddenly, and said, "Okay, who hit me?"

"Don't look at me, princess," Dax said from behind her. "I felt the same thing."

"Same here," Bren said while pushing himself onto his knees and wincing as another one shot through. "And whatever that stuff was it was probably strong and undiluted."

"It wasn't _poison_, was it?" Jinja asked, suddenly nervous.

There was no response from any of them. Mainly because they all felt the same way.

* * *

Beyal didn't know how much time passed—he had no idea of how long they were unconscious. The sun had set by now, but it was still very warm in the room—both Chase and Dax had removed their jackets, and Beyal himself was considering doing so with his cloak; it was close to the uncomfortably-warm point.

The door was locked from the outside. So, in the meantime, he meditated. Of course there were those sharp pains to deal with, but he became accustomed to them—although the intensity was gradually increasing. Jinja had drifted into an uneasy sleep, as had Chase and Bren. Dax was still partially awake, drumming his fingers on the floor. It was nothing but silence, for an eternity it seemed. And for how much longer?

* * *

The sun shone through the window as Dax woke up. He sat up, staring at the window. It was very small and barred—so much for escaping that way. There was a ventilation duct above, but it looked bolted into place. He looked around the room, observing the others. He was the only one awake, it looked like. Chase, Bren, and Jinja were all curled together, while it appeared as if Beyal had fallen asleep while meditating—he had also _actually_ taken his cloak off at one point.

Still, he was glad to be in an actual room and not a cage. It was fairly sized—enough to walk around and stretch. At that moment Chase suddenly woke up—as in, the jump-up-and-look-around-crazily type of wake-up. Feeling the sudden movement, both Bren and Jinja jolted awake and standing, and Beyal opened his eyes at hearing the sudden noise.

"Well that's a way to wake up," Dax muttered under his breath.

* * *

Chase sighed, after standing looking around. "We've gotta find a way out of here."

"But how?" Bren asked. "We don't have our cores, we don't have the Core-Tablet—we got nothing! _Nothing_!"

Jinja opened her mouth to say something—probably yell at him for being Mr. Negative, but she didn't. A strange, shivery feeling came over Chase, like the type when you _know_ something bad was going to happen. There was dead silence. And then—

Someone ran a knife down his back. "Aghhh!" he screamed. The pain was so sudden, and was over just as quickly. He fell onto his hands, panting heavily. Stars flew in front of his eyes for a few seconds. Looking up, he saw the others in a similar state—Bren had fallen onto his hands and was shaking, and so was Jinja. Beyal's eyes were wide and pupils were constricted so that they were practically pinpoints. Dax hadn't cried out, though his expression gave away that he had felt it as well—whatever IT was.

Chase looked around. No scientists in sight. Another stab of pain made him gasp, and he turned his head, feeling for a wound. When he took his hand away from his back, it was soaked in blood. Impulsively he used his other hand to shove his jacket away from him—it was his favorite one; didn't want it getting ruined. Dax did the same.

He heard Jinja say, "What was _that_?" in a shaky tone.

More, smaller jolts of pain raced through him as Chase slowly sat down. What was making him bleed like this? Why so sudden? He _just_ woke up!

Now he could feel the blood now, thick and wet, clumped on his skin, sticking to his clothes. He was beginning to feel a bit weak. He looked at the others, and they were all shaking as well, also bleeding heavily.

When Chase focused on Bren—who was still lying on the ground, quivering—he saw something that made him instantly feel like he was going to lose his lunch right then and there. Chase could see, under the blood and twisted pieces of fabric, something that _should not_ be there. Something slimy and boned that poked out of his skin…

Another wave of pain was all that was required to send him hurtling into complete unconsciousness…again.


	3. Chapter III

Jinja forced her eyes open. She dimly noticed that someone had come and bandaged her back and wiped the blood away, but she still _hurt_. Looking around, she saw the others still unconscious. But what had attacked them? The others had picked themselves up, looking just as pained and confused.

The hurt came and went. It felt as if someone was slowly lacerating their backs, cutting them open. At another point the scientists tied them down to the floor, so they couldn't even move. It even got so bad that they all eventually started slipping in and out of consciousness, to stay away from the agony…and from the sounds of their friends' and own screams. It also intensified to a degree where she was totally sore all over.

This would _definitely _lead to some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder.

On what maybe seemed like the seventh day of after the pains began, Jinja finally got the nerve to ask what had been hovering in her mind. "What's happening to us?"

First came silence. Then, Chase said, "I couldn't tell ya, Jin. I couldn't tell ya." But then again, she—and the others, it seemed—had long since figured that the pain was not coming from the outside…but the inside. Something from the inside was continuously slicing their backs open, though none of them knew what, exactly. Though Jinja had an idea that it had to do with the green stuff that had been injected into them on day one; it had obviously triggered some kind of reaction inside of them.

A few more days came and passed. The cutting sensations were getting fewer and further in between. Then they stopped altogether.

They all looked up sharply when they heard a door open, and a group of scientists crowded into the room. One stepped forward, a woman with dirty-blond hair, and started speaking. "As you can see, these are among the first successful avian-human hybrids that we have been able to produce. The previous experiments had all expired soon after the effects of the formula we injected them with. We don't know what is different about this batch that made them survive out of all the others, but we can have you examine them later; the new Calder-Danaus growth procedure obviously worked, as you can tell. Come with me, and I have some more information about this particular recombinant group down the hall…" But before they were entirely out of earshot, the woman shouted, "And will one of you go and untie the things?"

One scientist rushed back in and began untying them, one by one. Normally, as soon as she was free, Jinja would've laid a beatdown on the guy. But her mind was elsewhere—namely, with what the woman had said.

_Calder-Danaus…I don't know what that means._

_Other hybrids? What does that mean?_

_And human-avian hybrids…so that pain _must_ be…_

After untying all of them, the scientist hurried out like they carried a plague. Standing shakily, Jinja reached a hand toward where the pain had always come from. Something was definitely on there, something heavy that was weighing her down. "Jinja." Chase sounded tense. She looked, and saw that the others were looking at her with a mixture of shock and—wonder? More specifically, they were looking at something on her back.

"Chase," she asked, an idea forming. "Could you turn around?"

He complied, and Jinja started violently.

On her friend's back were a set of wings.

They had no feathers or color, just skin stretched over a set of bones. They were small and limp, but what they were was still the same. He had _wings_.

She was pretty sure she was in hysteria for a moment before she realized what it meant. The others followed her gaze, and instantly felt at their own backs. Bren babbled something, and Beyal gasped. Dax's eyes widened and he muttered something under his breath. Jinja reached behind her again, and no one stopped her. She flinched when her hand came into contact with skin and bone when there should have been nothing. They were slick with remnants of blood and something else she didn't want to know about.

But the fact remained. They were a far cry from "normal" now.

* * *

After the shock wore off, all of them stared at each other. Bren was left in a state of mute shock. _How can we have wings? It just isn't…isn't possible…_ An idea formed in his head suddenly. It was an absurd one, but still…

Eyes narrowing in concentration, he tried to reach into some nerve cells that must be there now, and tried to move one of his new limbs. Nothing.

He tried again. Nada.

_This is impossible. How can I move something that I've never had before?_ He decided to add logic to it. _If there are skin cells…there's nerve cells. So…maybe I just gotta get some feeling in 'em._ He slowly reached behind and lightly brushed a finger along one of his own wings, feeling the patterns and bumps. It was like a spider's web, really complicated yet delicate. The skin felt like it could break apart under his fingers at any second and he could feel the new, fragile bones. There were multiple ridges/pockmarks that felt like they'd sprout feathers at one point. Some sort of feeling sparked within him as soon as he did. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. Determined, he tried moving that same wing again…and it quivered. Then spread slightly. His brown eyes lit up in a mix of wonder and delight. They were defying every single law of nature, but…it felt _right_.

The others stared in wide-eyed amazement. Beyal gained a blank look, and he copied what Bren did. The same thing occurred. The others also mimicked him, and smiles formed on their faces.

But that all ended when they heard more voices. "Let me see these things." The voice—a man's—was so dang _cold_ sounding that Bren shivered. He then walked into the room, a scientist behind him.

The man had ragged black hair, and pale skin, but the scary part was that he had crimson, catlike eyes. "Well, well," he drawled. "Look at you lot. Winged freaks." He chuckled.

"Alpha," the scientist warned.

"Lemme have some fun with 'em," the thing said. And then he grinned, showing that he had nothing but canine teeth, ivory-white and sharp as knives. Then he started _changing_. Slowly, his features seemed to stretch, his nose and mouth being pulled until it became a snout, his hands turned into paws, and claws grew out of his fingernails. Scales appeared over his skin, and the whites of his eyes vanished, replaced with more crimson. He shot up in stature and in size too. It was a…a…Bren didn't know _what_ it was. It looked like some sort of chimeric demon—one name sense for it. Hunter, since things thing looked pure predator—wolf, snake, human…all the best features. They'd dealt with Klipse, STORM, Darkspin, and even Dom Pyro, but nothing like this. One thing was certain: all of them were frightened beyond belief.


	4. Chapter IV

Chase blindly ran through the maze, his sight blurry from tears. This was the seventh one he'd had to go through within an hour (and seventh _day_ of it), and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for much longer. If he slowed down, either he received an electric shock strong enough to scramble his senses or the flooring burned his feet. There was also the risk of running on razor wire if he took a wrong turn.

Finally he sensed the lighting become brighter—he was out—and he let himself fall down, panting heavily. He was _exhausted_.

"Huh. Slower than last time. Think we're overworking it?" one scientist asked.

_I am _not_ an _it_!_ He desperately wanted to scream that. But his throat was so dry…

"Eh, bring it back to the room. Go get Subjects A-4 and A-5."

"Which ones are those again?"

"The one with white hair is A-4, you idiot! A-5 is the Lowlander. Actually, go get Subject A-2 as well—it's due for endurance testing. And before you ask, it's the one with the glasses." Chase barely saw the scientist shake his head. "Ah, I'll go get them. You get that thing something to drink, and then bring it back."

Chase drained the juice-box he was given within half a minute. They'd been in the Institute—as it was called—for almost a month, it looked like. Day after day they'd had to go through tests like this.

He made sure to mutter a warning to the others as he passed them.

* * *

The next morning Chase awoke to the strangest sensation he'd ever felt. It was also very itchy. Mumbling to himself, he reached to quell the itch—and stopped. He felt something…soft. "What the…?" He looked, and his eyes widened. What had used to be nothing but skin stretched over muscle and bone was now covered in fuzzy white stuff. He ran a finger through it, wondering what it was.

Then it hit him like a cinder block. _I have down feathers._ "Guys?" he said, sounding weird—or, weird_er_ than usual. All of them held a weariness in their voices now…probably from all the things they had to do day after day.

The others lifted their heads, blinking sleepily. "What now, Suno?" Dax asked irritably—they tried getting all the rest they could.

"I have down feathers."

"_WHAT?_" They all took account of themselves, apparently finding the same thing.

"Incredible," Beyal breathed out.

"You can say that again," Bren said, brushing his fingers through the down on his small wings.

All of them jumped when the door suddenly opened, and a scientist came in, holding a girl who looked maybe twelve years old. He dropped her unceremoniously, and left the room, door clicking shut behind him. She had brown hair that was tied into a ponytail, and was wearing jean-shorts and a faded-green T-shirt that had neat cuts in the back—obviously artificial.

The girl sat up instantly, showing downy wings. Her hazel-blue eyes fell on them, and they hardened. "Who are you?" she asked warily.

"Uh, my name's Chase," he introduced, recovering his wits first. "What's yours?"

"Not yet. What about you guys?" She gestured around at the others. They introduced themselves in turn, looking bemused.

She huffed, and said, "I'm Otulissa; Lissa for short."

"So…um, Lissa, how long have you been here?" Jinja asked.

Otulissa closed her eyes before saying, "Truthfully, I got transferred her from a different lab, but most of my life I've lived in hellholes like this. Far as I know, I was brought in when I was two years old. I barely remember my parents…if I even had parents."

"Ouch," Dax muttered.

"Yeah, that bites," Bren said.

"What about you guys?" Otulissa asked. "I mean, you live in the system your whole lives, too?"

"N-No," Chase said fast. He couldn't begin to image what that would have been like. "We—got abducted from a campsite."

The girl snorted. "These guys are starting to get to a _fifteen_ on the diabolical scale of one-through-ten." Then, she suddenly asked, "What's wrong with you guys? I mean, there's no kid here who's normal. So what's your lot's deal?"

"Um…same as you, actually."

"Seriously? Let me look!"

Chase turned, showing his white-fuzz wings. She stared, and said, "No feathers yet? Darn." Afterwards it got quiet. Chase sighed, looking out through the small window. Leaves were starting to change color—there was at least one tree outside of the building that he could see. _I wonder what dad's up to…_ Another thing crossed his mind. _I bet STORM's going nuts trying to figure out where we're hiding. If only we _were_ hiding._

* * *

It was two days later that Chase found that he very suddenly had fully-feathered wings, along with the others. The whole process (which had apparently gone on overnight) had itched like crazy in the meantime. Which was why none of them slept that well.

Chase had to admit, his wings looked nice—they were entirely glossy black on top, almost the same below except for some cyan streaks, and fifteen feet in length.

Bren's feathers were a light-brown with paler flecks, getting more of a pale-cream shade on the undersides with caramel-colored streaks, and looked like they were maybe fourteen feet.

Jinja's were a solid ginger on top. The bottom was more of a paler shade with narrow goldish-colored streaks. They looked roughly fourteen-and-a-half feet across.

Beyal's were a uniform pure-white, matching his hair, although the lower sides had light-silver flecks that were almost indistinguishable. He had a wingspan of fourteen feet like Bren.

Dax's were a midnight-blue on top and shot through with brown streaks, and were dark-brown with white spots below, looking roughly to be the same length as Chase's—fifteen feet.

Lastly, Otulissa's wings were brown with black-tipped feathers, and a paler brown below, and about thirteen feet.

* * *

And that led up to where Chase was now. He had to admit, he was surprised.

First, they'd shoved him into a shower, so he actually felt _clean_ again. Second—the kicker—they gave him _actual_ food! Normally all they did was give them some seeds and a little oatmeal. Along with plenty of injections, of course. He had markings everywhere on his arms from all of them.

Then they'd brought him to this huge room where the ceiling was probably thirty feet up. The walls and ceiling were also made of glass—the bars supporting them being the only things marking where the room ended and outside began.

Oh, how he wanted to be outside.

The room was filled with plenty of scientists, a lot of them holding clipboards with paper and pens. The meeting seemed important—he overheard a few of them, and it seemed that they were "showcasing their _best_ specimen." He also noticed the black-haired man with the green eyes who had been present when they underwent the so-called Calder-Danaus procedure.

Something made Chase look up—and he went stiff, feeling like his blood froze. Handing from a string, also tied to it, was a Core-Tech core. Lock's core, to be precise. But it was twenty-seven feet off the ground. _I need to get that!_

First he tried jumping. Although he noted that he was jumping higher than he used to be capable of—roughly four feet straight up—it was no dice.

After two minutes of trying, he sat down with a huff. He heard murmurings from the scientists, and pens scratching on paper. _What do they want me to do?_

He frowned, an idea forming. _They made me leave my jacket in the room—why? _Because they must want him to try flying. _But can we fly?_

"Guess there's one way to find out," he said to himself quietly. He stood, and spread his wings to their full fifteen-foot length, eyes on the prize.

He remembered touching his own wings for the first time, the sensation that had fired from them, and recalled how birds flew—moving their wings up and down.

He remained so focused on working, that only the shocked gasps of the scientists brought his mind back to reality. And when he looked up, he saw that the core was dangling in his face. Impulsively he grabbed it, and then looked down—

To see he was twenty-seven feet up in the air.

He was hovering. He was _flying_.

The fact came so suddenly and with such surprise that it made him forget to flap. Only when he suddenly dropped three-point-five feet did he remember, and moved them quickly. He felt terribly unbalanced, and clumsy, but he worked those kinks out pretty fast, slowly trying to move through the air in the room. _Holy crag, I'm—freaking—_flying_!_

* * *

Chase was still in a state of shock when he was shoved back into the room, gladly gripping Lock's core—he'd hidden it from them when he finally had to land, as, sadly, his wings had swiftly become worn-out. He also felt very shaky as soon as he landed.

"Chase, why do you look so excited?" Jinja asked.

"Uh, Jin? I _flew_. Literally!"

"What?" all of them exclaimed.

"Seriously?!" Dax asked, sounding a bit high-pitched. Chase nodded feverishly.

"I'm not kidding! Lemme tell you guys…" He couldn't keep a sigh in. "It's the most awesome thing in the world."

Bren trembled. "C'mon Chase, you're getting me jealous!" the glasses-wearing boy exclaimed.

"And that's not all of it…" At this point Chase could barely contain his excitement. "Look what I snagged!" He proceeded to flaunt Lock's core.


	5. Chapter V

So it was decided that, that night, Chase would spin Lock out and they'd bust out of there. Lissa had told them that all the scientists went home after eleven—so they'd break out at eleven-thirty, to allow any stragglers to leave.

And the time had finally come. With the familiar cry of "Lock, launch!" the core spun out, smacking against the door, and the bear-like Monsuno appearing with a roar, instantly smashing the door and most of the wall. Of course red emergency lights started going off, as well as an alarm. "First things first, guys—find the other cores!" Chase ordered, and they fanned out. "Meet up at the main door!"

Bren slowed each time he passed a door along with Beyal, looking through the window to see if he saw anything of note. He _did_ see a laptop filled room which had, sitting on a table, the Core-Tablet. He tried turning the handle—it was locked.

With a nod from Beyal, they both backed up and threw themselves at the door—and it came down, surprisingly. Bren was happily reunited with the Core-Tablet, and when he turned it on, he was surprised to see that the settings had been edited.

Apparently the scientists had been bent on keeping it—Core-Tech stuff _is_ the best, after all—so they'd tricked it out with constant satellite hookup, wired the codes so it and the passkeys were constantly changing and couldn't be traced, and installed a program that allowed easy access though any firewall—meaning it was now their key to every imaginable piece of information in…well, anywhere. _Sweetness on a stick!_

* * *

It was Jinja and Otulissa that found the cores. They, along with an assortment of red cores—and a few yellow ones—were in an open box on the table. Otulissa kicked the door down, and they'd reclaimed the cores. There was, however, one Core-Tech core that Jinja didn't recognize. In response, Otulissa had picked it up, studied it, shrugged, and put it in her pocket. "Finders keepers," she said before they ran out.

They all met up in the lobby—finding their ways there via the few wall-posted maps of the building, as it was a darn-big building. Dax had also found where their supplies had been—clothes, at least, and some water bottles. Everything else was gone, including Jinja's emergency credit-card.

"You guys ready?" Chase asked. Heartened nods answered him, and they dashed out.

They ran for a while. Jinja didn't know how long. Finally Chase began to slow, as did the others. "Phew," Bren said, panting. "That's the longest I've ever run—_outside_. Ever."

Chase laughed a bit, as did Jinja. Beyal had a goofy grin on his face, and Dax was smirking. Otulissa just looked overjoyed. "Guys, I gotta hand it to you," the youngest avian hybrid said. "Thanks to you, I just got my first taste of the great outdoors. So thanks."

She turned to walk off, but Beyal cut in, "Lissa? Where are you going?"  
She froze. "Good question. Uh…Chase? Little question…"  
Chase smiled. "Yeah, you can stay with us."

"Thanks!"

Then he sighed. "Lissa, gotta let you in on a few stuff first…"

* * *

Explanations done with, Dax observed quietly as Otulissa digested everything that had been thrown at her. "Okay, so you're looking for your dad…while evading the government branch STORM…and this psycho named Klipse."

"That's a way to put it," Chase said.

There was a pause. Then—

"Hold it," Bren exclaimed. "Did you say STORM's a government _branch_?"

"Yeah, they aren't the hotshots they proclaim to be. I've heard some stuff about them. And by the way, did you know the current Commandant-Marshal's only been up at it for about a year, not even?"

"Really?" they all exclaimed.

Otulissa nodded. "I know her name's practically impossible to pronounce though. Started with a C…what was it again?"

"Charlemagne."

"Right." Otulissa nodded.

Dax zoned out a bit after that. _Okay…we have wings. Gonna be hard to tell the doc _that_,_ Dax thought. Then he heard a crack, and looked up sharply. The others followed his gaze.

Something was coming…something that…_Oh God!_

* * *

Beyal was unprepared for what happened next. First Dax whirled around, and then eight things crashed out of the undergrowth. Humanoid, covered in scales, green, slitted eyes—except for one, with crimson. Alpha.

"Run for it, guys!" Otulissa shrieked, spreading her wings. Core-Tech whirled and began running—but the Hunters were too quick. Beyal could hear them catching up. He noted that Chase had taken a running leap, and was airborne now—

And then—

He was suddenly up too. As were the others.

But only his subconscious noted that, as his rational sense was filled with the demand to _get away_. They arced away from the clearing, instinctively tilting their wings to catch the late-night breeze, and rode it away.

After a while of silence, Beyal became aware of a strange sensation. He looked to the side, seeing his white feathers ruffling in the wind. It suddenly hit the young monk like a falling icicle. He was flying. No…_they_ were flying.


	6. Chapter VI

It sunk in quickly. And when it did, it initiated in them all doing a bunch of mid-air flips and twists from joy in the fact that they were free, free, _free_. Chase laughed out loud, swooping down a bit and pulling up again. The Lowlands sky was crisp and cold, but that was only because of the lack of sunlight. At the altitude they were at, he could see for miles.

"This is _sooo coool!_" Bren shouted, doing a mid-air twirl. Chase had been right in his early calculation—his friend's wings reached about fourteen feet in length.

Jinja was close behind Chase, her ginger-colored wings moving steadily while she studied the desert below. Beyal was a bit behind her, though he was looking at the stars. Dax, meanwhile, was doing steep banking moves, Chase only being able to see him when he was outlined against the moon. Just when he was about to call for Otulissa, the said girl suddenly came up in front of you, saying, "Spooked ya!"

"Yeah, you did," he said, chuckling. But he was quickly driven to distraction as a more worrying thought came to mind. _Oh crag…how am I gonna tell dad about this…?_

They kept flying for maybe an hour. Predictably, Bren said, "Chase? I'm really hungry."

"I know, B. I'm hungry too." To the others, he called, "Guys? Let's try to find somewhere to stop for the night. And after that, we need food."

* * *

Chase kept looking around. _C'mon, there's gotta be someplace to land somewhere…_ He was starting to feel tired—it was only his second flight, after all. And it was the first time for the others. Finally, a cavern in a cliff ledge came into view. "Down there!" he exclaimed, angling his wings slightly down.

Then Bren suddenly said, "Uh, Chase? How do we land?!"

Chase froze. His first landing had been faceplanting on the ground—so he didn't really know how. "_Uh_…just try!"

"Chase!" Jinja shouted.

"I landed on my face first time, okay?"

He heard a laugh from Dax at that one, and he shot a glare at the Lowlander, before turning his attention to the matter at hand. Frowning, he backpedaled slightly before he hit the ground. He stumbled majorly, but at least he didn't fall over.

Unlike the others—both Dax and Jinja fell onto their faces, while Bren fell backwards. Beyal stumbled majorly, as did Otulissa. "That's something we need to work on," the younger girl said, rubbing her head.

"You can say that again," Dax mumbled.

"Yeah…we'll need to practice some time," Jinja added.

"Can we do that tomorrow or something, _after_ we find some food?" Bren asked. "I'm tired—and hungry."

"Yeah, tomorrow," Chase decided. "After we scrounge up some food."

* * *

Jinja pried her eyes open. Above her was…rock? _Huh? How did—oh right, we got out last night._ To make sure, she felt at her belt, and found both Charger and Whipper's cores there. _Phew, it wasn't a dream._ She looked around. It looked like only she was up right now. Off to the east, the sun was just starting to rise. Ignoring her hunger, she crawled to the edge of the cliff, and looked out.

She could see for almost two miles—nothing but desert and cliffs. As was the usual terrain of the Lowlands. The sand far below was a patchwork of colors—rose, cream, tan, brown. After that she turned her attention to her wings.

They were a shade of deep ginger, darker than her hair, and the primaries—the big ones along the bottom outside edge—paled into a cream color on the tips, and that was all on the top. The undersides were a lighter color in general, with narrow gold-colored streaks.

She almost jumped when she heard a shuffling behind her, and she looked to see Chase sit up, rubbing his head. "Morning," she said quietly.

"So we weren't dreaming?" was his reply.

"Nope," she said happily.

"That's a relief." Then, "When did you get up, Jin?"

"Few minutes ago."

Chase stood and walked over to the edge, looking down. He whistled. "Wouldn't want to drop from this high," he said.

"Not like we have to worry."

"Right." Then, "Aw crag," he muttered.

"What?"

"How am I supposed to tell my father about this?"

"Um…" Truthfully, Jinja hadn't thought about she would tell her own parents that she had _wings_. Actually, she hadn't talked to her family in a long time now. Neither had Bren, for that matter. They were probably worried sick. She sighed and shook her head. "We can't worry about that right now, though," she said. "For one, I'm _starving_."

"Yeah…we need food. Like, soon."

* * *

Once everyone else was awake, they all took running takeoffs. Thankfully this one was less rough than the one the night before, but this time they weren't being pursued. So now they were making a steady way east, toward Islyn Town—which was on the edge of the Lowlands.

Islyn was a small town, located in a small, sparse forest. Its perimeter didn't even reach a mile-and-a-half in any direction, so it had only one school, one grocery store, one police station, one post office, pretty much one of everything—except for houses, of course.

But as they landed outside of the town, Otulissa exclaimed, "Hold on guys!"

They turned to look at her. "What's up?" Dax asked.

"Um…your clothes."

"What about 'em?" Bren asked, sounding puzzled.

"Uh, you have huge rips in them, that's what's up!"

"What?"

Chase had already known that his shirt was badly shredded in the back, but now that he looked at his reflection in some glass, what he hadn't noticed was that there were quiet a few stains in it as well—blood and something else that he didn't want to know about.

"Are you serious?" Jinja exclaimed, apparently finding the same thing.

"Man! And this was my favorite shirt!" Bren said.

Dax looked like he wanted to say a few things, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Only Beyal didn't seem too worried.

Otulissa sighed, and said, "I'll got and get some grub. You guys try to find some new threads."

* * *

"Chase, this doesn't feel right," Jinja whispered.

"I know that, Jin, but we have to," he whispered back. They were looking at a set of clotheslines outside of a hotel, both of them full up.

It had been decided that they'd have to "borrow" some clothes in order to stay inconspicuous. "Well I'm all for it," Dax said, sauntering forward.

_Ohh, karma's gonna get back at us eventually,_ Bren thought, following slower. Only Beyal lingered as Chase and Jinja also followed.

Within a minute, they'd all fled back into the undergrowth with their not-so-new clothes. Chase had picked a light-blue T-shirt and a simple brown jacket. Jinja had on a teal-colored long-sleeve shirt. She had also picked a new white shirt for Beyal. Dax had taken a black-beige shirt in a camouflage pattern, while Bren himself had picked a black T-shirt that was neon-green at the hems.

Of course they had to cut huge slits in the back to let their wings out, but at least it was barely noticeable at all.

* * *

They met up on top of an abandoned building's roof. Otulissa had fulfilled her promise—she had brought three whole bags of groceries. "How did you get the money?" Chase asked.

"Let's just say some guy's gonna be pretty surprised." She held up a wallet…and had totally ignored Chase's glare.

He facepalmed, sighing. "Well, we better scram. Don't want anyone to recognize us." So one by one, they took off…completely unaware about what would come next.

* * *

They decided to check into a small motel for the night, luckily having enough for it. Apparently this place didn't get much business. It did clean out the wallet, though. Otulissa promised to leave it on the receptionist desk.

All of them were taking turns in the shower, currently Jinja's turn—she was the last one to go. Their ruined clothing had been tossed out—Chase was glad that his jacket was undamaged. He'd gotten it as a birthday gift from his dad.

Bren was browsing the internet on the Core-Tablet—a function that had been improved tremendously—while Otulissa was hearing some stories from Beyal. Dax was aimlessly flipping through channels on a TV.

Suddenly Dax sat up straight as a board. "Uh, Suno?" he said, voice wavering slightly.

"What?" Chase asked, somewhat worried. Dax never sounded like that.

The Lowlander pointed. On the news channel that he had randomly put on, the anchor was saying, _"No one knows if this is an illusion, but even if it is, you'd need to see it to believe how lifelike it is." _The screen cut out to show _them_ taking off from the rooftop in Islyn Town. Thank God it was fuzzy, so they couldn't be recognized, but still…

This was bad. Bad, bad, BAD.

"Jin, you're almost done, right?" Bren called, sounding nervous.

"Why?"

"Uh, we got on the news."

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah, hurry it up—we might want to scram."

"Alright, alright, I'm hurrying!"

* * *

As they were flying, Dax made sure to lag behind a little, but not by too much. He needed to pay someone certain a call.

He took his phone out—as he had found it with their things—and dialed a particular number, and waited for an answer.

"Hello?" a voice finally asked.

"Hey doc."

"Dax!" Jeredy Suno exclaimed. "Where—what happened to you?!"

"Long story that I'd rather not go into." The Lowlander was shocked with himself—his voice betrayed a feeling of slight panic. Well, maybe "slight" was an understatement.

First the doctor was silent. Then he asked slowly, "At least tell me one thing."

Dax decided to tell him the important, life-changing one.

"Well, we got abducted by a rabid pack of geneticists, and…well, they sorta grew wings on us."

* * *

Jon Ace just could not process what he was seeing on the news. _There's no way that can be real._ Said thing that had no way of being real was a news article titled "Real-live Angels?" It showed six _winged_ kids.

A soldier had brought it up to him, prompting him to take a look. That was ten minutes ago. He was jolted out of his thoughts by Trey. "What are you doing, Ace?"

"Have you seen this?"

To Jon's surprise, the other commander stared at it for quite a while before saying, "Why didn't you tell the commandant about this?"

Jon frowned. "I don't—"

Trey suddenly facepalmed. "Right, you weren't there. Stay here."

Trey left, leaving Jon completely bemused. Normally Trey would've made a smart remark about him not knowing something. This time he seemed…well, freaked out.

Within three minutes he returned with Charlemagne. She looked at the video for a few minutes before muttering something in German that sounded like "Nicht schon wieder." _Not again_.

"What happened?" Jon asked.

"Mid-January," Trey started. "We got a lead on some sort of lab in Coastal City." Jon recalled that before Monsunos were invented, STORM dealt with other things as well.

The other commander looked at Charlemagne, as if expecting her to continue. She remained silent—amazingly Jon could glean an idea from her expression…she obviously didn't like speaking about this subject.

Realizing she wasn't going to talk, Trey abruptly finished with, "What we found wasn't a pretty sight." He pulled some files from a cabinet. "Look at these."

Jon did as so. He felt sickened at some of the images in there. "Who in their right minds would do something like that?!" he exclaimed.

"Ve have been hearing rumors of some zhat had…escaped, possibly, in zhe southern region of zhe Auror Province. And now zhese ones in particular…ve need to find them."

Jon had to agree, especially on this one. They needed to put a stop to whoever was doing this.


	7. Chapter VII

That night, Chase was still up after he was sure the others had fallen asleep. They were bunking on a high-up inlet in a cliff, and he was standing on top of said cliff, looking at the stars. He knew why Beyal liked it so much—it was pretty enough of a sight to get your mind off of anything.

Well, almost anything. He still had no idea how he'd break it to his father that he was a mutant freak now. He laughed nervously to himself. _At least I'm not alone._

Then he clenched his fists. _If I'd chosen a different campsite…! _Yelling, he whirled and punched a rock. An ill-perceived action, as now his hand hurt.

While he was shaking it to reduce the stinging, he heard a voice say "Chase?" in a worried tone.

Chase started, and looked down to see Jinja looking up at him, rubbing her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Jin," he replied, though she obviously didn't believe him, because she climbed up to the top of the ledge and gave him a sideways questioning look.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" she persisted. He sighed—she always won in an argument against him. He had no idea why.

"It's just…well, I don't know how I'm gonna break _this_ to my dad." For emphasis on 'this' he spread his wings.

She didn't respond for a minute. Then she said, "I don't know how I'm going to tell _my_ family either." She frowned. "I haven't talked to them in a while…"

"Neither has Bren."

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a while. Once Chase thought he saw a shooting star, but it was at the corner of his field of vision, so he wasn't sure. Then Jinja said, "You're lucky—you got the nice-looking wings."

"Huh? Uh, I guess…about mine anyways. Yours look nice too."  
True, his wings did look nice. Shadow-black with cyan streaks on the undersides.  
Hers were a solid russet-ginger color on top that paled to a creamish shade at the edges, while they were cream-brown below with faint goldish streaks. "How're you holding up?" he asked then. They'd had to run from the Hunters again earlier that day—as soon as they'd landed first, the Hunters had burst out of the undergrowth. Jinja had gotten slashed on her leg, but it wasn't too deep, and Beyal had been kind enough to cut some of his cloak to make a bandage for her.

"Fine—it's a bit sore, but I can walk okay." She decided then to change the subject. "Well, it'll be a lot easier to get away for DarkSpin, that's for sure."

"What do you mean?"

She grinned at him. "They glide. We fly."

"Good point." He laughed a bit. Leave it to Jinja to cheer him up. Chase yawned after that. "Okay, now I'm tired. I'm gonna turn in."

"You do that," she said, and then frowned slightly. "Weird," she muttered.

"What's wrong?"

She blinked a few times, and looked around. "I can see you perfectly, even though it's cloudy."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah…it's strange." She looked off toward the desert below, and said, "I can see an owl down there, too. And a coyote."

"That is weird." _And speaking of weird…_ "Hey Jin? Remember when those Hunters first attacked us? Night one? Dax knew they were coming, even though he was facing the opposite direction. And this morning, too!"

Jinja frowned, obviously thinking. "I'll ask him about it tomorrow."

"Okay, now I'm really going to bed," Chase said. "Night."

"Night."

To his surprise, instead of getting up and heading back down into the ledge like he expected, she leaned onto him. "Uh, Jin? What are you…?" He trailed off when he realized she was already asleep. He huffed slightly. _Just go with it Suno,_ he told himself, leaning back against a rock and shutting his eyes. _Just go with it…_

* * *

They were up bright and early the next morning. First thing Bren noticed that everything was clear. _Did I leave my glasses on last night?_ He felt at his face, and found—his glasses weren't there. "Huh?" he said to himself, looking to his left to see his glasses folded on a rock where he had apparently left them _Then…_

Bren put his glasses on, only to see that everything was suddenly too-much in focus. "The crag?" he exclaimed, waking the others. "What's wrong Bren?" Otulissa asked.

"My glasses are bugging out," he explained. "But when I'm _not_ wearing them…I see fine!"

"Huh?" the others of Core-Tech exclaimed.

Otulissa slammed her fist onto her palm. "That's right! You know how we see like birds-of-prey now? That means we can all see perfectly—the avian DNA corrected all genetic bug-ups involving eyesight."

"Wait, so that means…" Bren trailed off.  
"It means you don't exactly need those anymore."

Once the shock wore down, Bren shouted "Seriously?!" at the top of his lungs.

"Hey keep it down!" Dax exclaimed. "We don't need anyone else seeing us!" He then added in a mutter, "Or the Hunters finding us."

Beyal looked around. "Where are Chase and Jinja?"

* * *

"Well, look what we have here."

Chase's eyes snapped open when that too-fake-sweet voice with a hiss in the undertone sounded too close for comfort, and inspired instant fear—no, terror.

Jinja had instantly jumped upright, as had Chase. Alpha—always Alpha. His crimson eyes glinted in an almost-playful way…if you overlooked the cruelty evident on his face. "You two make a cute couple…" At that both of them blushed faintly. Until he added, "Of bird freaks!" He cackled. "It's almost like you _don't_ want to go back to the Institute!"

"Never!" Jinja spat, anger mixed with fear.

At the same time Chase snarled, "When I'm dead!"

Alpha chuckled darkly. "That can be arranged, you know."

In response, both Chase and Jinja spun a core out—him using Lock par usual, and her using Whipper. The others would definitely be up in a few seconds…

Both Monsunos let out deep snarls as they stared menacingly at the Hunters. "Ah-ah," Alpha said, holding up a gun of some kind. "No Monsunos." He fired it twice. A single disk-like object latched onto one Monsuno each, before letting out a strong electric charge—enough to make Chase's hair stand on end and his feathers to stick up slightly, even though he had his wings folded in. Lock and Whipper both returned to their cores in a matter of seven seconds.

Chase was shocked. _They took both our Monsunos out in less than a minute…!_

Alpha cackled again. The other Hunters behind him looked eager for a fight—which Chase realized was actually about to happen.

Instinctively he tensed, ready to spring at a moment's notice. And he got that notice—when Dax suddenly clouted one Hunter in the head. It went down, sprawling. Two others lunged at him, but he somehow dodged it in a way that made them smash into each other.

Otulissa flew up as well, kicking another Hunter in the head. Taking advantage of the subsequent confusion, Jinja tackled one of the last remaining Hunters down, as did Beyal and even _Bren_—which surprised Chase.

Meanwhile, Chase managed to gather his courage and barely managed to knock Alpha down before leaping into the air, flapping his wings like crazy to gain altitude, get away.

The others were right behind him. Gunshots sounded, and Chase winced when he felt one pull a feather out. Said feather was quickly blown away.

The six of them angled their wings to catch the breeze, carrying them northeast. Chase noticed something. "Hey Bren, you didn't leave your glasses back there, did you?"

"Nope, they're right here." He took them out of his bag for a bit before putting them away again, to Chase's confusion. "Might I add that I don't need 'em anymore?" he said, looking ecstatic.

"Sweet!" Chase said, feeling shocked. _Then again, I can see a lot clearer too. I think all of us can._ Then he smiled a bit before saying, "Well, that was a pleasant way to wake up." He laughed nervously.

"Right," Jinja said, sounding a little awkward. Chase cleared his throat quietly, remembering not only the night before, but also what Alpha had said. Talk about embarrassing.

Then the auburn-haired girl seemed to remember something. "Hey Dax? Question."

"What is it princess?"

"One, don't call me that. And two…how did you get those two Hunters to crash into each other?"

"I just had a feeling they'd go at me like that," the Lowlander said, nodding and looking pleased with himself.

"Alright," Jinja said. "So what about the night we got out? You were facing the other way, and you knew they were coming!"

Dax opened his mouth to reply—and closed it again. He then frowned a bit. "I…don't know. I just had a feeling they were coming. And I knew they were either gonna catch us or kill us."

Everyone was quiet. They'd never heard Dax use that tone.

"Prove it."

"Let's see…well, lil' Suno's planning on flying until sundown, so that's a head's-up…"

"Hey!" Chase complained. Truth was, that _was_ his plan. _Well, maybe that's a bit overboard._

Beyal looked thoughtful, and he opened his mouth to say something—

Only to have Otulissa say, "I heard some of the scientists talking about stuff like that. They said stuff about 'programmed abilities' coming up or something like that. I think you can sense intentions, Daxy."

Dax was shocked silent, his eyes widening. Jinja blinked, and added, "I could've sworn I saw some animals out in the desert last night—but it was pitch-dark."

"Infrared maybe. It probably only switches on at night, otherwise you'd be blind as a bat in the day," Otulissa said thoughtfully.

Jinja was quiet for a few moments before shouting, "Wait, I can see in the dark, then!? Awesome!" She looked about as ecstatic as Bren had been about not needing his glasses.

"And us?" Chase asked.

"They'll come out over time—hey, where'd Snowy go?"

Chase didn't follow her at first. _Snowy?_ Then he realized: Beyal. He had white hair—of course he'd be partial to nicknames like that.

"I am right here," the said monk spoke up, sounding puzzled. But from where his voice came from…nothing was there.

"Uh, Beyal? We can't see you," Chase said.

And then, there he was, flying alongside Jinja, looking confused. She looked a mixture of confused and shocked that she hadn't notice him vanish.

Otulissa had her explanation: "Camouflaging. You're so quiet; of course you'd get that one." As if sensing what Bren was about to say, she said, "I haven't noticed an ability for myself yet. So if you and Chase haven't noticed anything unusual about yourselves—besides the internal compasses and weird amounts of strength and stamina— you either don't have it yet or it's something you'll notice later." Otulissa paused. "So Chase…where are we going?"

Chase looked thoughtful. "We'll be passing over Westward City, so…" He paused for effect, grinning. "We'll rest there for a few days."

The cheers were immediate. "Yes! A city!" Otulissa crowed.

The team leader smiled to himself. He was getting a lot better at the "leadership" stuff. Too bad it took them getting mutated against their wills.

* * *

It wasn't long before they reached the city. Beyal spotted a clearing that was secluded from view in a park. This landing wasn't too painful—Bren was the only one to fall down—but they were on grass this time. "Ah, grass!" the resident geek exclaimed. "I never thought I'd be this happy to see it!"

All of them agreed—although Bren was sure Beyal wanted to see some snow more.

Something else crossed Bren's mind as he stood and folded his light-brown wings in. He began rummaging around in his bag.

"B, what are you up to?" Chase asked.

"Checking on that _particular_ news article," Bren explained while said news piece loaded. "I'm gonna see if it's still popular or not." He froze. "Which it is."

"Crag," Chase moaned. "Shouldn't've landed in the city…"

"Actually, that's not the reason." Bren stared in amazement. "it's gotten popular again because of a response…from STORM. They're actually supporting the footage as real!" He was sure he was going to hear their disbelief.

Which he did. "No way!" Dax exclaimed.

"Are you serious, Bren?" Chase followed up with.

"Let's hear this so-called support," Jinja said.

"Hang on, I'll play the article," Bren said as he tapped a key.

_"Although it's been a few weeks and the mysterious bird-children are nowhere to be found, the government agency STORM recently released a statement that, unbelievably, supports the existence of these modern mythical creatures."_

"'Modern mythical creatures', are we?" Jinja mused.

The anchor's tone turned dark. _"However, we've also learned from the statement what is likely to be the dark side of this real-life fairytale. At the beginning of the year, a hidden laboratory was discovered in Coastal City—"_ The screen cut out to show a stair corridor in what looked like a water facility_—"That contained not only lab equipment—and I will warn that this next part is not for young children or the faint of heart—cages filled with what appeared to be mutants of some kind."_ The mood of all six winged controllers soured immediately. _"All had DNA normally not found with the other. For example, these two creatures that have been dubbed Lucky and Molly: they appear to be a mixture of cougar and Atlantic salmon."_ Again the screen cut out, this time to show a video—of the weirdest non-Monsuno creatures any of them (except maybe Otulissa) had ever seen. They really did look like cougars, except they had silvery-blue fish scales, a fish's tail, and gills.

_"Thanks to careful research, these specimens have recovered and are thriving in the city's aquarium as of today. However, not all of the stories had such a happy ending like Lucky and Molly. In fact, only five other hybrids besides these two had been alive."_ Again the screen cut out, showing two videos: the first one showed what looked like scaled coyotes. Most likely a prototype for Hunters.

The second video showed some winged horses. Pegasus, much?

The final one was only a picture, but all of them crowed around in shock. It was _surely_ a Monsuno prototype. At first Bren thought that it had been sent by mistake, until he noticed that he saw a different, too-fuzzy-to-make-out mutant in the background…that looked like it had wings.

The creature of focus, however, was obviously a Monsuno by its markings and eyes. Possibly a black bear—panther hybrid.

It was still worrying to know that the scientists at the Institute—or whatever this place had been called—had actually been the ones to discover Monsuno Essence. "So THAT'S how Charlemagne knew about your dad's work!" Jinja exclaimed. "She'd already seen something like it!"


	8. Chapter VIII

"Chase, are you out of your core?!" Bren asked.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with Bren on this!" Jinja added. Quieter, she said, "Wow, I actually said that."

"Yes Chase, I am not seeing wisdom in this decision," Beyal said, looking worried.

"I'm with monkfish. What a better way to let everyone know who exactly we 'modern myths' are?" Dax put in sarcastically.

Chase groaned. "I know it's risky, but if we're careful, no one should notice anything unusual about us at all."

"Yeah, if they overlook the cuts on the backs of our shirts."

"Well, I'm all for it," Otulissa said. "This aquarium place sounds cool." At that Chase subtly winked at her. She gave a slight thumbs-up. They all knew that the youngest team member—seeing as she had a Core-Tech Monsuno, she was pretty much by default part of the team—had no memories of a normal life. So the others were silent the rest of the flight.

* * *

Two hours later Coastal City came into view. They circled an area outside of the city once, searching for any possible danger. Seeing none, they landed. Thank God they were getting better, although Jinja made note that after a long flight she felt shaky while walking for a few minutes.

"Alright, we look normal if we fold our wings tight like this…" Chase mused.

"Right. Let's get this over with," Dax said."

First thing Jinja noticed as they hit the first of the crowds was that she immediately felt slightly claustrophobic.

She blamed being stuck first in a cage and then in a small room. "Chase, I'm not liking this," she said. He glanced at her.

"I'm nt too comfortable about this anymore either, Jin."

The claustrophobic feeling peaked when they got to the aquarium. It. Was. PACKED.

"Aw crag," Chase said, sounding shaky.

And his response wasn't just from the crowds. The price of admission was _twenty dollars_. They didn't have any money at all. Otulissa apparently hadn't noticed the sign, for she attempted to stroll right in.

"Hey, you need to pay up if you want to get in," the administrator—obviously a teen who needed some extra money—snapped.

Jinja facepalmed. _So much for not attracting any attention,_ she thought.

Then the younger girl said the craziest thing. "_Please_ can you let me and my friends go in? We really wanna see Lucky and Molly."

The guy hesitated. "I…guess?" he said slowly, looking confused. Otulissa beamed and went in. Amazed, the rest of Core-Tech followed.

"Lissa, how'd you do that?" Bren asked.

The girl shrugged. "I guess I got my ability."

They began nearing where the cougarfish were. Jinja knew simply by the size of the crowd. She jumped when she felt someone grip her arm, and she looked to see—nothing?

Or not—she saw a faint outline. "Beyal, what's wrong?" she asked, worried. Although she already knew a likely reason; probably the same reason she felt freaked out.

Beyal flickered into view for a few moments. "I do not know why, but I am very nervous…" He vanished again. Jinja sighed. _I knew being in that _place_ would have some psychological effects._

* * *

Eventually they managed to gather their wits enough to move forward through the crowd. Out of all of them, Dax was hating it the most.

As it turned out, he couldn't "turn off" his ability like Jinja. Which meant that he was aware of _every single person_ within fifty feet of himself. He was hardly able to distinguish his own intents in that giant mess!

Of course he didn't say it aloud, though.

Chase suddenly stopped from where he had been leading them through the crowd. In the tank that was the focus of attention were the cougarfish, just as the video had showed them. "So we're not the only ones," Chase said.

Dax was baffled. "What in blue blazes do you mean by that Lil' Suno?"

"I mean, we're not the only ones who lived through a place like that."

It then made sense. They weren't the only surviving hybrids.

They failed to notice someone in there recognized them.

* * *

"Man am I glad to be out of there," Bren said gratefully. The others had all wanted to leave after that, so Chase really had no other choice but to agree. Especially since he, like the others, had developed a _slight_ claustrophobia.

Otulissa had again provided food—convincing some people to surrender their leftovers as they left a restaurant. She also "bought" some extra bags to hold supplies, some of which having cans of food in them. She had smiled sheepishly at Chase's venomous look.

"So I was thinking," Chase said after they were done eating some of their food (the leftovers, since there was no way to keep them fresh), "That we'd head toward Melian City."

Bren and Jinja both froze. "Uh, Chase?" Bren started. "No offense, but are you sure that's a good idea?" He sounded nervous.

Dax laughed. "What are you so scared of the Auror Province's capital, Glasses?"

"Hey!" the resident geek complained. "I don't even need to wear those anymore!"

"Habit." Bren grumbled something in response.

In response to the Lowlander's question, Jinja said, "Me, Bren, and Chase used to live there. Actually, Bren and I still technically do. Someone will definitely recognize us."

"…oh."

Chase looked around. "Well, we better get moving," he said. "I don't wanna stay in one place for—"

"Leaving so soon, Baby Suno?" a familiar voice asked.

Chase froze. "You're _kidding_," Jinja deadpanned before turning around. Chase did the same and saw it was indeed DarkSpin.

"Who are they?" Otulissa asked.

"Trouble," was Jinja's response.

"How fantastic!" Medea went on. "It's been _sooo_ long since we last battled." She took out a core, as did the rest of her crew."

"Medea, we're seriously not in the mood. But if you insist…" Chase took out a core, and his four closer friends copied. Otulissa hesitated a moment before taking her core out as well.

Simultaneously, all of them spun their cores out. Chase actually sent Nightstone out, as he felt he'd been neglecting it. Bren sent Quickforce out, Jinja spun out Charger, Beyal sent Glowblade out, and Dax spun out Boost.

There was an explosion of blue and red, and the battle begun immediately. Otulissa's Monsuno took the shape of a four-winged owl, its lower wings being covered in crystal blades. It also had crystal claws and a crest on its head that looked wickedly sharp—also consisting of crystal.

"Nightstone, Prism Shot!" Chase ordered. The jackal-panther growled, the crystals on its shoulders and legs glowed before it shot an orb of energy from its mouth. The attack slammed Poisonwing in the face.

Bren glanced at his core before saying, "Quickforce, Blind Wing!" The antelope-raven's metallic wings immediately shone with a bright light. Spikebat screeched in pain as the light shone into its sensitive eyes. Unfortunately it didn't' just affect the opposing Monsunos.

"_Gyah!_" Chase covered his eyes. "Bren, be careful with that one!"

"Sorry!" his friend yelped, also covering his eyes. One downside to having bird-of-prey vision—bright light HURT.

Moonfire and Spiderwolf had been ganged up on by Charger, Boost and Glowblade. It wasn't long before both of them were sent back into their cores.

Otulissa's Monsuno was chasing Spikebat around in the air. Otulissa seemed to realize something, and she shouted, "Wingblade, Light-Shard Rain!" Her Monsuno—now dubbed Wingblade—flapped its wings hard, sending daggers of energy down onto Spikebat. Said Monsuno was pounded into essence.

Medea looked seriously ticked. "Poisonwing, Stasis Sting!" The flying snake Monsuno flew up and attempted to strike Wingblade.

Chase retaliated by yelling, "Crystal Blade!" Nightstone leaped upwards, slashing at it with lengthened claws.

And that was that.

But before anyone could say anything, there was a muffled _pop_ and something black whizzed by his face. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dax go stiff—big warning sign.

Chase whirled around to see five pale-skinned people wearing black suits. The four on the sides had sunglasses on, but the middle one had none…showing crimson eyes. _Not again!_

"You six keep running away—but it's completely useless," Alpha said. "You should just give up and come home to the Institute with us."

"Ch-Chase?" Bren asked shakily. "What are we gonna do?"

Chase took a deep breath, rallying his options. They could _try_ using the Monsunos…but Alpha probably had that anti-Monsuno weapon with him. They could run for it…but where to?

Only one way to go. "Nightstone, return!" he said. The Monsuno complied. Seeing his action, the others hesitantly followed. He saw Alpha raise an eyebrow. Then Chase said, "Guys, straight up."

"Are you crazy?!" Jinja asked after a few split-seconds.

"Maybe. But it's the only chance we've got. Let's go!" Knowing that he was making a very-huge and probably-fatal mistake, he leapt up and snapped his wings open, the others following.

Immediate response: "WHAT THE—?!" Telegonus shouted.

Latinus stuttered, "T-The news was right! And it's them!"

"They angels?" Argius said dumbly.

And for once, Medea was speechless.

Core-Tech all had to immediately scramble to avoid bullets—Alpha sure loved using guns to try and shoot them down. He saw Beyal flinch—a bullet yanked out a primary feather, which was quickly gone with the wind. He knew that one had as much chance as kicking up dust-storms of trouble as his own lost feather did—Chase's lost feather had been one with a bit of cyan on it, which is no natural color for a bird. And their own primary feathers were _way_ too big to even belong to a large eagle or condor. Well, Otulissa's might pass for a large condor, but with Chase, Bren, Jinja, Beyal, and Dax…not a chance.

He just had a feeling that this was going to come back and bite him on the nose.

* * *

They gradually altered their course so that they were heading northeast, toward the Auror Province. Dax sped up slightly so he was flying alongside Chase. "You know Klipse is gonna be after us, right?"

"I know. It was the only chance we had."

"Why couldn't we just use the Monsunos?" Bren asked.

It was Jinja who answered that. "Alpha has some kind of weapon that can take a Monsuno down in less than ten seconds. We would've never gotten away."

Thunder boomed faintly in the distance. Chase squinted, and said, "We might want to fly lower." They were at their usual altitude: eighteen-thousand feet. Oxygen was a bit thin that high, but it wasn't a problem for them, strangely.

The forest below them had changed to a mixture of deciduous and conifer—they were getting close to the southern border of the Auror Province. Bren looked ahead at the sky and said, "Yeah. It looks like there's a thunderstorm coming in."


	9. Chapter IX

Chase looked up at the sky anxiously. They were flying way lower than usual—skimming right over the treetops, actually. Namely because the sky was an ominous gray color, and some instinct was telling him to stay at a low altitude.

"I don't like the look of this," Otulissa said for the fiftieth time. A tick mark appeared.

"We heard you the first time bird-girl!" Dax shot back for the forty-ninth time. Chase shut his eyes in irritation.

"Will both of you shut up?" Jinja asked in an exasperated tone for the forty-fifth time. The Core-Tech leader quivered in anger.

"Will all three of you," he started, "Just _please_ be quiet?!" They all shut their mouths, looking at him, shocked. "We'll land soon, alright? Then we'll eat." They had stocked up in food at a gas station—they were the most business the place got at once.

Then again, something always just _had_ to go wrong when it came to them, didn't it?

A sudden explosion of pain in his right wing made him gasp, and even then he was staring stupidly at blood quickly matting his feathers as he dropped toward the ground. "Chase!" Jinja exclaimed simultaneously with Bren, both of them diving down.

He still hit the forest floor, of course—thank god it was cushioned by grass and leaves, as it was autumn now. The others landed beside him as he rolled over and got onto his knees, clutching his hurt wing. "What the crag happened?" Dax asked.

"Got shot at," Chase mumbled, taking his jacket off and _slowly_ spreading his hurt wing to look at the injury. It was a bullet wound alright—it only clipped him, but his wing felt heavy and useless. Then Dax went stiff—big warning sign—and whirled around…right as about eight Hunters burst out of the bushes.

"Chase, run!" Jinja said. "We'll handle this!"

He nodded, whipping around and dashing for it as fast as he could. Ignoring the fact that branches and twigs were whacking him in the face every few seconds, Chase kept on running. His wing still was killing him, and he had a feeling it was going to stain his shirt. _Guess I'll have to get another,_ he thought grimly. He kept running, although he paused briefly before crossing a road.

* * *

He waited for a while in a tall tree, keeping an eye out for anything and an ear out for any suspicious sound. Sort of hard on the _seeing_ part, since the sun had set. He froze when he heard footsteps, and looked down—to see Jinja. "Chase?" she called, looking around.

In response he jumped down from the tree, causing her to startle slightly. "Don't do that." He shrugged, and winced when his wing throbbed painfully. He moved to check the injury again, only to hear Jinja say, "C'mon Chase. We have to get to the others first. _Then_ we can look at your wing." Chase remained silent.

Automatically Jinja did a scan of the area—an easy feat, since she had night vision.

It seemed no sooner than that did they start crossing the road when they heard a squeal of tires braking, and headlights in their faces. Chase merely squinted and blinked a few times. Jinja, on the other hand, cried out and covered her eyes—reminding Chase of Otulissa's words: _"It probably only turns on at night, otherwise you'd be blind as a bat in the daytime."_

Chase studied the vehicle. It wasn't from the Institute, which was good…

…but it was a STORM H-Tram, which was bad.

The driver leaned forward a bit; mouth opening in shock, and then a door on the side opened and two soldiers ran out, quickly restraining both of them and dragging them in.

* * *

Jinja was crazily nervous. It was bad enough that DarkSpin knew that they were the winged kids from the news, but this…this was much worse. _If they figure out _we're _the winged kids…_

Even worse was the fact that one of the soldiers had reported that they captured Chase (they didn't care about her), so it was likely that they'd have quite the welcoming committee.

It also looked like Chase's wing was still bleeding. It was a miracle that none of the four soldiers restraining them had noticed…yet.

* * *

Chase's anxiety peaked as they were brought into the base. Fifteen soldiers with guns, two Elites likely armed with Monsunos, as well as—no surprise—Trey and Charlemagne. And Jon Ace. Chase wasn't sure how to count that.

"Chase Suno. You've certainly been elusive," Charlemagne said, a faint sneer in her voice—why had they let themselves be captured so easily?

There was also an unspoken question—where had they been hiding the last two months?

Chase involuntarily winced—his wing was throbbing painfully every few seconds, and he could feel that blood was soaking through his shirt by now.

Jon Ace leaned forward a bit, obviously noticing something, and his eyes widened. "Chase, you're bleeding!" he exclaimed.

Chase saw Jinja glance sideways at him, and then at the floor. Judging by the way her eyes widened, some of his wingblood had started dripping onto the floor.

"Get Memphis," Jon said to one soldier, who ran out quickly. "What happened?" He ignored Trey muttering something, likely an insult.

Chase and Jinja exchanged a quick glance. "Um…I got shot," Chase muttered, looking down. When he risked glancing up, he saw the obviously-confused looks on all their faces.

Then a door hissed open and a man with brown hair and green eyes holding a small medical kit came in. He looked back and forth between Chase and Jinja until he realized that it was Chase who was hurt. "So what am I dealing with?" he asked.

"He got shot at," Trey said flatly.

"Oh jeez." Memphis went over, and Chase went rigid. "Easy kid, I'm just gonna take a look at it." A pause. Then, "Your jacket's a total mess. You sure it wasn't a mountain lion?" Obviously he was trying to lighten the mood.

_Kind of. But not exactly._

Chase felt the guy—Memphis—pull his jacket off. The teen swallowed hard, and turned his head. Memphis was staring—Chase didn't blame him. When the Hunter had swiped at him, it probably tore his shirt a bit as well; he'd need another "new" one.

Good chance he saw the injured wing, judging by the way his expression morphed to one of complete shock and utter disbelief. Also when Jinja gained an expression that had "disaster" written all over it.

"Kid?" Memphis started, sounding high-pitched. "What's…_uh_?"

The moment of truth. Chase took a deep breath and said, "It's a wing." His voice was quiet. "It's…_my_ wing. That's where I was shot." To prove it—as well as seal their fate—he spread his injured wing halfway, enough for them to see the injury.

The reaction was immediate and expected. Jinja facepalmed—good chance she'd yell at him for this. He heard Memphis back up quickly. The other soldiers had expressions that varied from shock, disbelief, and horror. No doubt the latter was inspired by the news' brief report on recent "illegal genetic experiments." And the fact that they'd seen this before.

Jon's expression was among the horrified ones. Trey was staring, eyes wide and shock evident. Charlemagne visibly paled a bit. And the look in her eyes clearly showed that her reaction to this was a mixture of the two commanders' reactions.

"Um," he heard Memphis say. Then Chase realized it wasn't directed at him, but at Jinja. "And…you?" It was clearly hesitant.

Jinja didn't say anything, but she gave Chase a you-are-so-dead glare before huffing and spreading both her wings a little.

"I thought so." Memphis sounded strangled.

Charlemagne then snapped an order, and all lower-ranked soldiers scrambled out of the room—the medic followed once he put an antibiotic in Chase's wound and patched it up.

Afterwards, it seemed that the three adults were trying to think of something to say—until Trey blurted, "How the heck did you punks get _those_?!"

Neither Chase or Jinja responded. At least until Jon said, "At least explain a little, please?" He glanced sideways at the Commandant-Marshal before adding, "We've been trying to track down the ones responsible…"

"Somewhere in the Lowlands," Jinja said immediately.

Chase followed up with a more logical response: "It's somewhere in the Lowlands, a few miles northwest of Lycia. That's where they took us."

If any of them were shocked to get a response, they didn't show it—Trey simply wrote something on some paper.

It was fine until Charlemagne said, "Vhat vere zhey doing to you, exactly?" All three adults fell silent when the two winged controllers went stiff, gazes blank.

Fractured images, memories, fear, and pain all came together in their minds…then everything went totally black.

* * *

Jinja didn't recall passing out. Next thing she was aware of was that they were in the infirmary. Memphis told them that they both fainted without warning.

An hour passed. Both of them were locked in the infirmary on Memphis's request. Jinja had yelled at Chas for a solid fifteen minutes before sitting hard on one of the beds, refusing to even look at him. He was sulking in silence.

Now she was just trying to figure out what to do to pass time. Their Monsunos had been confiscated—who knows who had them right now. Chase was remaining silent, wings outspread slightly—it was more comfortable like that.

Jinja looked up. Memphis _had_ said that the infirmary used to be part of the hangar, so the roof was pretty high. So she took advantage—she needed to practice her speed landings anyway. All of them did in that case—they could only do slow landings, which could take up to a minute.

She spread her ginger-colored wings, and within five strong flaps added with a running jump, she was safely airborne. Honestly, she felt _safer_ in the air. She was still a little clumsy while flying, but she was doing the best out of all of them.

She was aware that Chase was watching, but she was still pissed at him for getting her into this.

Take One: she faceplanted.

Take Two: she stumbled.

Take Three: she was going in close, when a sudden memory flashed in her mind, causing her to panic, and she faceplanted. Again.

She picked herself up. _Ow,_ she thought. She shook her head. _Ugh…I don't want a repeat of that one._

"Jin, you okay?" Chase asked.

"I'm fine," she said, brushing herself off. Then she sighed. Owning up, she replied, "How about you? How's your wing feeling?"

He shrugged. "Better." He spread it, wincing only slightly. Then he frowned. "Actually, I think…it's healing already."

"Really?" she asked. Now that she thought about it, when she had gotten a small cut on her hand, it had patched itself up within ten minutes, not even leaving a scar…

"Chase, why don't you try flying?" she asked suddenly.

"Uh…okay?" He did as such—he was three feet in the air within six minutes. She followed suit, though she was up faster.

Par usual, that familiar sense of euphoria welled up. Chase was a bit more wobbly than usual, but he was steadily straightening himself out.

It seemed something new about them emerged every week. What could possibly be next?

* * *

"I can't even start to imagine what they might've gone through," Jon Ace said, shaking his head. Trey didn't respond, but Charlemagne knew what he was thinking about—because she was as well. Commander Ace wouldn't know much besides what he had been told—he hadn't been part of STORM at the time of the _incident_.

Said incident: at the start of the year, one soldier had stumbled upon a hidden building. An immediate investigation followed, which yielded results that gave _all _of them nightmares for weeks. It had been a lab of some kind, and another room had been _filled_ with cages, many being occupied. Said occupants had taken a while to identify, because they hadn't been any exact species—all hybrids of some twisted kind. Worst of all, not all of them had been alive. Most of the dead ones looking like young children. She hated even _thinking_ about it.

At that moment something struck her. "If zhey have wings…" she mused. Both commanders gave her a queer look.

"Ma'am? What are you getting at?" Trey asked.

She didn't respond—instead, she started toward the infirmary.

* * *

Meanwhile, Chase was enjoying a nice game of air-tag with Jinja. It had been invented by Otulissa, of course. The younger girl got along _perfectly _with Beyal—she was one of the only people to get him to actually open up, though that most likely was affected by the two-year age difference—Otulissa was roughly 12, while Beyal was about 14.

It had just gotten to be his turn to be "it" again when he suddenly felt like he was being watched. He turned his head—and almost dropped like a rock. Jon Ace, Trey, and Charlemagne had come into the infirmary at one point, and were currently staring at them. Their expressions clearly said that they were in complete awe.

"So you _can_ fly," Jon Ace said.

"Well, yeah," Chase said, suddenly feeling a bit sheepish. He made note that the three adults mainly seemed to be studying their wings now.

Chase had to admit that his wings looked awesome—they were a glossy black on top, and the same on the undersides…except for the white-rimmed cyan streaks. 15-foot total wingspan.

Jinja's looked very pretty. They were a bright ginger on top, with paler tips on the primary feathers. They were streaked with gold below. 14½ total wingspan.

Before anything else could happen, however, an Elite ran into the room. Chase made note that he had their cores. "Ma'am, we've picked something up on radar."

"Vhat is it? Spit it out."

"We're not exactly sure, but…we're pretty sure that four of them are the other…rogue controllers. But it isn't just them."

That was an instant set-off. Acting impulsively, Chase ran and managed to snatch all four cores, and while they were dashing through the hallway at full-steam, he passed Charger and Whipper to Jinja. She nodded her thanks, and they finally reached the exit—it was raining, but they didn't care. Both of them looked around, searching.

Chase then saw some "birds" that were circling each other, occasionally flying at each other. "Wait a minute," Jinja said, squinting. "Those aren't _Hunters_, are they?"

"Jin, I think they are," Chase responded, dread evident in his voice. Part dog, part snake, part human, and now part flying-something? That _couldn't_ be a pleasant mix.

Then he heard a yell behind him: "Hold it punks!" Of course, Trey. He had his Monsuno Launcher ready, probably armed with Riccoshot—as usual. Jon Ace was behind him, as was Charlemagne. Both were holding a core.

Chase turned around, holding his hands up. "Ah, sorry. Can't play right now—we have to go help our friends." He whirled around simultaneously with Jinja and they both took leaping takeoffs.

His hurt wing stung a bit, but it wasn't much. He risked a glance back—they had made a beeline for a Hopper. _Great…_

"Chase!" Bren exclaimed when he noticed them. Chase was shocked—Bren _never _got directly physical when it came to Hunters and he wasn't in a tag-team. Except for now.

"Nice to see you guys still winging it," Jinja said, planting a kick on one Hunter's wing. The Hunters were now obviously part bat, judging on their wing build.

"Behind you!" Dax warned. Instantly Chase whirled and _attempted_ to punch it in the snout—but it dodged at a speed unheard of for Hunters. _What the…?_ The Hunter came around fast, landing a hard kick to his left wing. Chase dropped a few feet in altitude, though he surged back up quickly. But as soon as he did, he saw that the Hunter had kicked Jinja on the arm, _hard_. "My, my," the Hunter said slowly in a sickly-sweet voice. Something about it made Chase freeze up. _Wait…!_ The Hunter's eyes. They were a luminous green.

Just like the eyes of the man who had overseen the avian DNA being put into them.

The sheer shock of it made him forget to flap, and he only remembered when he had dropped three-point-five feet. "If I'm correct, I called you our _best specimen_. I see I was correct…in some ways," the Hunter continued. "Excellent leadership skills, speed, power, and decent feather colorings as well."

Chase glanced up slightly, and saw the Hopper coming in close. The Hunter frowned, and glanced sideways. He smirked in a way that was worrying to Chase. "Now, I can't allow the government to see me," he said.

Realizing what he meant, Chase's eyes widened, right as the Hunter said into an earpiece, "Take them. _All_ of them." He said the last part while sneering at Chase. The winged teen dove down fast, right as about twenty winged Hunters burst out of the cloud cover. Instinct kicked in, causing adrenaline to get shoved in and speed him up majorly.

* * *

Charlemagne shakily stood up. She hadn't really seen what had happened, but something took out one of the engines, which caused the whole Hopper to go down—a system flaw that hadn't yet been worked out.

She turned her attention to the two commanders—Jon Ace looked fine, though Trey looked like he had a bit of a bloody nose. She herself felt a bit dizzy—she had hit her head on something metal.

Then she heard a voice. "Well, who do we have here?"

She looked through the broken windshield, and saw a pale-skinned man with black-brown hair and crimson-colored eyes leering at her. "Remember me?" She thought she did. He really did look familiar…like one person…but that person was dead. He frowned a bit, and said, "Of course you don't." Then he scowled. "Pity. Still, it'll feel good doing _this_." Without warning he lunged, and before she could react he whacked her in the face, hard.

Before she blacked out, she realized it really was her old friend—Markl!

* * *

For a while Chase was just a feathered missile with no target. Gradually he slowed, turning around.

When he reached where they others had been, he noted that the Hunters were nowhere in sight—and neither were the others. "Guys?" he called worriedly.

"Down here!" he heard Bren call.

Beyal suddenly shot out of the undergrowth without warning, saying, "Chase, Jinja is injured."

"What happened?"

"One of the Hunters caused her to fall. I believe she may have a fractured arm."

"Oh great." He followed the white-haired monk down where the others were.

"You got out okay?" Otulissa asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah Lissa, I'm okay." Chase had to remember that she was only 12. He then turned his attention to the other girl. "Jin, you alright?"

"Yeah…" She clenched her fist—her left one, as it was her right arm that was hurt. "I can't believe that stupid Hunter. He yanked my wings together behind me."

Chase winced in sympathy, and his eyes darkened. "Wait. Was it the one with bright-green eyes? Like, bright-bright?"

"Yeah." She shuddered. "I think…"

"…he's the one we saw on day one at the Institute." Then he went rigid. "Hold on. What happened to the Hopper?"

"Uh…" The others looked at each other. "I didn't see it go down…" Bren started. "And I don't think I heard anything—but it's windy, so…"

Jinja stood up, testing her right arm. She winced. "Yeah, that's fractured." Bren promptly set up a makeshift splint for her from the medical supplies that Otulissa had napped at some point. "I'll go look around." She took off without another word. A minute later, she came back, looking grim. "Yeah, it went down. There's no one there."

It took Chase a few seconds to process the true meaning of the Hunter's words. _When he said "take them" I thought he meant just us…but he said that they couldn't let the government see—oh God._ "Uh, guys?" he started shakily.

"What's up?" Dax asked—and he paled slightly, obviously catching on. "You _can't_ be serious mate…"

Chase nodded grimly. "Yeah. We have a rescue mission to do."

"Rescuing who?" Bren asked.

Otulissa spoke up. "You mean the ones that were in the Hopper, right?"

"Yeah. Them."

"So, you want to lead a rescue mission into a place that's a hellish abomination that ought to be firebombed, to save people who are trying to get us killed?" Dax summed it up in a question.

"Yep."

"You're insane."

"I know that, Dax."


	10. Chapter X

Otulissa glanced around at her friends. Chase had firmly decided that they were going to rescue three people from the Institute…but they hadn't really made all that much progress within two days. Heck, they hadn't even hit the northern edge of the Lowlands yet!

And she didn't have Dax's intention-sensing ability, so she didn't know what Chase was really thinking. And Dax sure as heck wasn't talking to her about it.

Actually, _none_ of them were talking about it!

When they landed by a river for a rest, she turned on them. "What's wrong with you guys?" she asked. "I thought we were going on a rescue!" This got them all to flinch hard. Apparently she hit a nerve. Suddenly worried, she asked, "Something wrong?"

"Well…" Chase started. "I guess…we're all sort of—"

"Worried," Jinja finished, looking down.

"Yeah. I'm not looking forward to going back to that place," Bren added.

"Or me," Dax put in. Beyal nodded in agreement.

The youngest team member was silenced. _I've lived in that place my whole life…so going back isn't as scary. But they—they grew up as normal people, and the sickos mutated them against their wills…_

"I get it," she said. "If you guys want, I can do it solo."

"No!" all of the others shouted, surprising her.

"There's no way I'm letting you do that, Lissa," Chase said sternly. "Not on my life." He looked around at the others. "Afraid or not, we need to do this. Yeah, Charlemagne's crazy, but not even she deserves to be in that place." The others nodded slowly, finding truth in his words.

Otulissa beamed. "Then let's fly!"

* * *

In truth, Alpha didn't know _what_ to feel. Once part of him was angry at Charlemagne—she never came to rescue him like he'd hoped. She didn't even remember who he was—her former best friend when they were kids!

Then again, he _did_ look different now. What with crimson eyes—he didn't have those before. They had been an unexpected mutation when they made him into a Hunter.

He opened the door to the room where she and those other two guys were. Amazingly she was conscious—the scientists had put avian DNA in them with the enhanced Calder-Danaus procedure, so all three of them were definitely in a world of pain. The other two were both out cold.

He crouched down in front of her crate, looking. "Pathetic," he spat. "I thought you were supposed to be the Commandant-Marshal of STORM."

All he got in response was an uncomprehending, glazed-eyed blink. Right…she probably was unable to think straight at the moment. The other part of Markl felt sorry for her, having to be caged and mutated against her will. Like he had been. Before he left, he looked one last time at the still-developing wings on their backs.

* * *

Dax made sure he was out of earshot before he answered his phone. "What is it doc?"

"Dax, do you still have the failsafe devices?"

He flinched a bit. Just remembered about those. "Ah…no."

Jeredy groaned on the other end. "Think you can sneak away long enough to come and get some more?"

"Doubt it—Lissa's out right now."

"Who?"

"Otulissa." No response. "Right…remember how I said we weren't the only winged kids?"

More silence. Then, "Dax, what does this 'Otulissa' look like?"

"Eh? Brown hair, green shirt, brown wings…why?"

"I'll call you back." Jeredy hung up directly after that, leaving Dax in the dark on what he meant.

* * *

The reason why Jeredy hung up on Dax was simple. He could see a girl who looked about 12 _flying_ nearby. Hoping he was right, he called, "Otulissa!" The girl stopped, hovering, looking his way.

Then she slowly made her way toward him. When she was close enough, she asked, "Do I know you?" Her tone was wary—of course it would be.

"No, but you know my son."

"Your son—Chase?"

"Yes!"

She gasped, and that was the only warning Jeredy got before she tackled him down. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Chase has been leading us all over the place looking for you!"

Jeredy managed to stand up—she was pretty strong for a 12-year-old. "Lissa, can you go and get Chase for me? And the others?"

"Sure thing!" But before she flew off, she asked, "You already knew I had wings?"

"Lissa, I know all of you have wings."

* * *

Chase looked around. _Where's Lissa? She's been gone for a while…_

But right as he was about to fly off and look for her, she landed right in front of him. She was also grinning. "You are going to _love_ me—I found your dad!"

It took a moment for Chase to process that. Then he said in a surprisingly calm-and-serious tone, "Lissa, you better not be lying."

"Would I lie about something like that?" Oh, and uh, he knows we're the winged kids."

Chase froze. _He…knows? But how?_ Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dax had taken a sudden interest in his feathers. "Dax?" the team leader growled, a suspicion now being confirmed.

"Oh alright," the Lowlander muttered. "You could say I've been doing a few jobs for your old man."

"Dax, I asked you if you knew where my father was a million times!"

"I didn't know then—he's all over the place! Look, if you want to know what he's been up to, go ask him yourself."

* * *

The flight was silent. Otulissa was flying point for once, since she was the one who knew where Jeredy was. Chase flew directly behind her, alert for anything.

They began nearing a ledge not unlike the one they sheltered in on the first night of freedom. And standing on it was…

"Dad!" Chase exclaimed, automatically tucking his wings in and diving down.

"Chase?!" was all Jeredy got to say before he had been tackled down (again). "You're lighter than I remember," the scientists got out with a slight wheeze. "But you're a lot stronger."

"Sorry." Chase stood, very suddenly feeling self-conscious of his wings. He considered folding them as the others landed.

Jeredy turned his focus onto their said newer appendages. He seemed to be trying to come up with something to say. Finally he got out, "What happened…?" He trailed off when he saw their expressions. He got no answer. Realizing he _wasn't_ going to get one, he changed the subject. "So, ah, what's been going on?"

Jinja replied. "We're going on a crazy rescue mission to save three people who hate us. Well, two of them hate us anyway."

"Who?"

He was silent when she told him. Then he said, albeit hesitantly, "Chase, I need to show you something, actually."

He led them further into the cavern, into a small hidden lab. He opened a drawer, and took out a photo. Jeredy looked at it for a whole minute, a somewhat-dejected expression on his face. Then he turned it so that they could see.

There were three teenagers in the photo. The first boy was obviously Jeredy, seeing as he looked almost exactly like Chase—or the other way around. The other boy had black hair and dark-green eyes—Klipse.

But it was the third one, the only girl, that had Chase dumbstruck. She had blond hair and yellow eyes. "Is that…?" Bren asked in disbelief.

Jeredy nodded. "Yeah. That's Charlemagne."

* * *

Later on, Jinja was looking out at the desert. The story that Jeredy had told them was almost impossibly to believe: all three of them had been very good friends at one point, but then _something_ happened which caused it to end with a bang. Jeredy himself didn't know what happened really.

It was dusk, so the sands below were a shade of deep violet. The sky was a pastel of red, yellow, dark blue, purple, and everything in between.

Chase had made a decision that they were going to approach the Institute at night only, and move stealthily. Seeing as they were pretty much delivering themselves to the wacko scientists.

Jinja didn't know what to expect, for she knew firsthand that the scientists at the Institute mutated pretty much anything they got their hands on.

She heard footsteps behind her, and she glanced to the side. It was Chase. She was glad, though—she need to ask him something. "Chase, why _are_ we doing this? The rescue mission, I mean?"

"Like I said, no one deserves to be in the Institute." He paused. "Not to mention one of them is Jon Ace." She nodded—she knew that Chase had known Jon since he was little. Then Chase surprised her by adding, "And the fact that my dad used to be friends with Charlemagne—that counts as something, right?"

"I guess." She chuckled a bit—that fact altogether was so unbelievable. "That's definitely gotta count for something."

Chase glanced at the sky. "We better get flying soon." He went back in, and after a minute, came back with the others.

"Chase…be careful," Jeredy said.

"I know, Dad."

"Actually, as soon as you get them out of there, I want you to come back here."

All of Core-Tech (except for Otulissa) gave him confused looks. Chase frowned. "Are you sure about that, dad?"

Jeredy nodded. "I need to ask someone a few things. This might be my only chance to, as well."

* * *

Myron pressed his face against the bars of his cage. This was the first time he was seeing someone other than his little sister Bella up-close.

Surprisingly it was a grown-up—the Institute normally handled kids and teenagers only; he'd only ever seen other kids and teens as experiments. She had blond hair and was wearing a black outfit of some kind. Myron thought he had seen her with an expensive-looking white jacket on the first day, but one of the scientists had probably taken it.

If an experiment was captured—a kid from a playground or a teenager walking home from school or hanging out with a friend or two—the scientists always went through their things and kept whatever they wanted. It was also how the Hunters got their guns—stolen from military bases, most often STORM.

The canine hybrid was wondering what was wrong with the blond lady, until he noticed the wings. _No wonder she's out cold—she must've been in agony while those were growing in._ She probably was—fourteen whole new bones. Most avian hybrids that weren't injected with the DNA before birth tended to remember it that way, and it tended to result in a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite being only 10, Myron had quite the vocabulary.

Her wings looked limp, but they were already covered in down feathers—most likely the improved Calder-Danaus procedure, which had been modified to make the mutations go along faster. His dog-ears twitched. _I wonder what it feels like?_

Out of curiosity, he reached over and touched some of the white feathers. They were very soft. He giggled a bit to himself.

Then, very suddenly, she woke up.

* * *

It was very abrupt that Charlemagne regained consciousness. She had just felt the _strangest_ sensation…what was it? She looked slightly to the side, feeling like she was being watched, and saw that her premonition was correct—there was a silver-haired boy with amber eyes looking at her. "Who are you?" she carefully asked, remembering all too suddenly what she'd been enduring (barely) over the last few days.

"Um…Myron," he said. At the same time _something_ on his head moved. She looked, and saw that he had dog ears. Impulsively she stated said fact. He scowled a bit. "You aren't exactly normal either."

Her eyes narrowed. "Vhat do you mean?" She looked around and saw that neither Trey nor Jon Ace were in the room.

Then she felt that same strange sensation that had caused her to wake up. She turned to look where it had fired form, and froze, eyes widening. She saw something that was whitish in color there that wasn't there before.

She knew exactly what it was, and now knew what those cutting sensations had been. That white thing—or _things_, as she saw a second—were wings.

* * *

Bella looked back and forth. This was the first time she wasn't in the same room as her older brother Myron. Instead, in the cages on either side of her, were two grown-ups. One had black hair, and the other had blondish hair. Both were guys, and were wearing black outfits. They also had limp, downy wings. Of course Bella had taken advantage and touched them. They were so fluffy!

She had been unprepared when the one with the blondish hair woke up. He sat up slowly, rubbing his head. He saw her almost immediately, and asked, "Who are you?"

"Bella," she answered, smiling. Finally she had someone to talk to—the silence had been killing her!

The blondish-haired guy smiled a little and told her his name was Jon. Then he looked at the black-haired man and said, "Trey?"

Said person groaned before sitting up. "Ace? What…" He stared at Bella. Apparently he noticed her dog-ears which, unlike her brother's, were floppy.

"Oh yeah!" she said, remembering. "My name's Bella! And you guys, your wings are super-fluffy!"

"_Huh_?" they both said. Then, almost hesitantly, they felt behind themselves—and froze, eyes going really small.

* * *

Dax silently followed the others. Jinja was up front—she had night vision, after all. He thought back on everything that had happened to them: being brought to the Institute and growing wings, meeting Otulissa and escaping, learning to fly, gaining self-mutated abilities—such as him being able to know what people around him are planning to do…it was all virtually overwhelming.

Well, a month ago it would've been overwhelming. But all of their definitions of "overwhelming" had changed greatly. He tilted his head back slightly, enjoying the breeze.

It was a nice sensation, even though they were flying toward the very place that had caged them.

* * *

The silence was beginning to get to the unbearable level for Myron. After her freak-out, the lady had clammed up and wasn't saying a thing. One of Myron's ears twitched. "Aren't you gonna tell me your name? I mean, I told you mine!" He studied the icy look he got from the blond lady. "What'd I do?" he muttered. She simply scoffed.

_She just doesn't want to talk to me._ Myron sat down, curling his tail slightly.

* * *

Meanwhile, Bella glanced out the window to the room she was in. It was totally dark out, only a few stars visible. "Won't be long now," she whispered to herself, although she saw the two guys—Jon and Trey—glance at her in a confused manner.

* * *

By the smell of it, there was still one scientist left in the building—due to being part dog, Myron's sense of smell was roughly one-hundred times greater than a normal person's—for better or worse. Same with Bella—they _were_ siblings, after all.

And then the lights in the hall turned off. "All right!" he exclaimed, crawling toward the padlock. "Vhat are you doing?" the lady (finally!) asked.

Myron did not respond, except to successfully pick the lock and open his cage door. He was out immediately, stretching. He looked at the blond lady again. "You should see the look on your face. If only I had a mirror!" He cackled while unlocking her crate. She was out faster than he could, blink, it seemed. The dog-boy didn't wait—he silently opened the door, looking both ways. All silence. He sniffed—no one around…except for another door that opened, revealing his younger sister Bella and two other guys, one with black hair and another with blondish hair.

"Commandant Charlemagne! Are you alright?" the black-haired guy asked immediately.

"Fine…" Myron could tell she was hesitating. _So _that's _her name._

Then Bella abruptly asked, "Does she have wings too Myron?"

Both of the guys went stiff, and the lady blinked in surprise. She surprised them by saying, "You as vell?" Myron could tell just by scent.

The man with the blondish hair nodded. The dog-boy looked around. "Um, can we get moving? I don't wanna be here when the security cameras come on…"

Boy did that get them motivated.

* * *

Although she'd never say it aloud, Charlemagne was very pleased to be out of that darn crate. She hadn't even had room to sit up all the way. But now the dog-boy had gotten her out, and the dog-girl had gotten Trey and Jon out. Which meant they owed two _children_. As they were running, she paused, looking into a laptop-filled room. There, on the table, were four cores.

STORM cores—their cores.

She tried opening it—of course, it was locked. In response, Trey kicked it open. It broke faster than she expected, and even the commander looked a bit bemused. Once they got their cores, she noticed something else that had been handily left on a chair—her jacket. She immediately reclaimed it, although another problem surfaced. A quick search led her to find a pair of scissors, which sufficed fine for making slits in the back. Then something else crossed the Commandant's mind. Turning to the dog-girl, who looked about eight, she said, "Mutt, vhat is your name?"

She looked insulted. "My name isn't mutt—it's Bella!"

Then Trey said, "Commandant, we might want to leave…" Jon gave her a look that clearly said he felt the same way. Both the dog kids nodded feverishly.

It wasn't like she wanted to stay in there either. So she consented.

* * *

Finally, the outline of the Institute was in view. It was a bit past midnight—good chance no one was there. Also why Jinja was flying point.

The air was cold—probably going into late November, which meant that winter was approaching. But that also meant it was beautifully clear. And there was no sight that could compare to the Lowlands night sky when you have raptor vision.

Something made her look down slightly then, and five figures stood out to her—humans. "Hey, there's something down there!" she called to the others, and she angled her wings to lower her altitude. She focused on them, causing the image she had to clear. When she realized who they were, she said, "Hey Chase! We don't have to go into the Institute at all—they got themselves out!"

"Huh?" the others went a bit lower, all focusing. "Yeah, it is them! And two other people," Bren said, squinting.

"Let's go down and look," Chase said, banking down.

* * *

Bella stopped where she had been walking, as did Myron. Both sniffed the air, and then looked up…right as six other avian hybrids landed in front of them. Bella was in awe—these ones had fully-feathered wings.

And she recognized one of them. "Otulissa!" she exclaimed in joy, leaping at her and giving in to one of her dog-instincts and knocking her down.

"Nice to see you too Bel," the bird-girl said. "Lemme get up."

"Okay." Bella sniffed, taking in the others' scents. She instantly realized there was tension in the air. _What's going on?_

The other bird-girl, who had ginger-colored hair and sky-blue eyes said, "And to think we were coming to bust you guys out." "We didn't need any help from you punks," Trey snarled.

"Ve could have taken care of ourselves," the blond lady—Bella realized they still didn't know her name—added, eyes narrow.

"Well you should be grateful we even thought about it!" Dax snapped. "At least you were only in there for a few days! We were in that hell for a solid _month_!"

That shut the three adults up fast. Like, seriously fast.

The boy with brown hair seemed to realize something, and he said, "Uh, they didn't _do_ anything to you guys, did they?"

He didn't get an answer. Bella decided she was going to answer for them. "If you guys are wondering, they're just like you! Except for the flight-feathers part."

She failed to notice the death-glare she got from the blond lady and Trey in response. Jon simply looked a little miffed.


	11. Chapter XI

Chase looked hard at the three high-ranked STORM members. "You guys too?" he asked.

Charlemagne didn't say a word, and Trey looked off to the side, muttering something. Jon was quiet. Beyal blinked, walking around in a half circle. He blinked again. "Yes, they have wings as well. Only down feathers," the monk confirmed.

_Great…now we have _them_ to deal with._ "Heads-up, flight-feathers come in all at once," Bren warned. "It itches like crazy." He blinked, and said, "Um…you're gonna need some new clothes, too."

"We're aware of that," Jon Ace said.

The dog-boy blinked, glancing at Bren. "Hey, I think I saw you once! Except you had glasses!"

The resident geek looked hard at the canine hybrid in response, and said, "I remember seeing you too. And uh, what's your name?"

"Myron. And this here is my little sister Bella." He gestured to the girl, who looked eight, and also had dog ears—except hers were the floppy kind, while Myron's stuck up like a husky's. However, all further conversation was halted as they heard alarms coming from the direction of the Institute. Chase's eyes widened, and he said, "Let's go!" He took off so fast it was ridiculous, as did the others…

…until Myron shouted up at them, "Hey! WE CAN'T FLY!"

_Crag!_ Otulissa blinked, and said, "Hang on, I got an idea!" She took Wingblade's core from her pocket, and threw it, shouting, "Wingblade, launch!"

The owl Monsuno appeared in a blue flash, and within a few seconds, had picked the five incapable of flight up—although all of them yelped in surprise. After that they hanged a hard banking maneuver away from the Institute without any hassle.

* * *

The Gogekka province had a surprisingly nice climate, despite being on the border between the Lowlands, the Alto Desert, and Southern Alappia. The forests surrounding the town of Gogekka always looked autumn-y, even if winter was fast approaching—because of the Alto Desert, which had a maximum winter temperature of seventy-five degrees. Of course it was still autumn, but still. Chase knew he had promised his dad that they'd go straight there, but a helicopter looking like it was from the Institute caused them to have to take a detour.

They had found a ledgetop cavern that went about ten feet in, and was about twenty feet wide after the entrance tunnel, and the cavern roof was roughly twelve feet up. The cavern was spacious, and had a sandy floor. Chase called Evo back, as they had to switch out every eight minutes—and the flight was _way_ longer than eight minutes. Bren sat down heavily. "Man, that's one of the longest flights we've ever pulled," he said, leaning back, wings outspread still.

"And I'm starving," Dax said. "Hey Lissa, do you have anything on you?"

"Well, I got some stuff here," she said, holding a bag up.

"Wait, when did you get that?" Chase asked.

"Um…while we were heading toward the Institute…" She looked down, not meeting his gaze.

"You're such a thief," Myron said, ears forward and looking attentive.

"Yeah, well…hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to live, right?" She laughed nervously.

Chase still glared at her, but just said, "Well, what do you have?"

In response, she opened it to reveal a small, portable cooler, as well as some cans. "Here's what I got. This stuff is pretty heavy, you know."

Chase noted that the three adults were saying nothing—as he expected. They had reluctantly—Jon being the first— unfolded their wings a bit, proving that they didn't have any flight feathers yet; only down.

Dax chuckled a bit. "Were we that feathery back then?" He instantly got a glare from both Trey and Charlemagne. Chase stood up.

"Okay, we don't need any fights going on here," he said, attempting to defuse any fights.

But it wasn't to be, as Bella said, "So, do you have any of those monster-thingies Charley?"

Both commanders stiffened, and the winged teen could've sworn the temperature dropped a few degrees. "Vhat—did you say?" Charlemagne growled.

Bella twitched nervously. "Uh-um…nothing!"

Dax, meanwhile, had covered his mouth to keep from laughing. Which he failed at. "Man, I'm keeping that one!" he exclaimed.

The Commandant-Marshal stood up, grabbing one of her cores. "H-Hold on!" Jinja exclaimed. "Dax, you shut up! Look, we're all tired, so why can't we just go to sleep?"

When Charlemagne glared at her, Chase thought he'd actually have to break up a fight—until she abruptly turned and stalked out of the cavern, Trey close behind. Jon facepalmed, and exchanged a quick look with Chase before following—obviously to go try and calm Charlemagne down, which he thought would be pretty amusing to watch…

Chase groaned. _This is gonna take a while. First thing to do…_ He looked at the others. "Guys? Listen up. Things are gonna be a bit different now."

"Chase, thing have been different," Beyal said.

"Well—yeah, but…you know what I mean!" He shook his head. "We're gonna have to try and be nicer to them. I mean, yeah they weren't in that _place_ as long as us, but they still went through it. And we're gonna have to be the ones to teach 'em how to fly."

"Can't they figure it out themselves?" Bren asked.

At that one, Chase facepalmed. _We're getting nowhere…_

* * *

Chase woke up nice and early the next morning—the sun was just rising. The others had long since fallen asleep—the funny part was that Bella was curled up on top of Dax. _Just karma getting back at him._ He also noted that in the end, the adults had come back in at one point, definitely after he had gone to sleep—or falling asleep anyway, as he thought he remembered glimpsing them coming back in when he was pretty much out of it.

At first he'd figured that they wouldn't have come back, that they'd have tried to go to the nearest STORM base. But they didn't.

That had him confused.

He crawled to the entrance of the cavern. It had clearly rained during the night, since everything was wet. A few birds were starting to wake up, calling loudly, and some crickets were chirping still. Ever since being infused with bird DNA, all of their senses had been hyped up. He heard someone move slightly, and he looked back in to see—nothing.

_Huh. I'm getting paranoid—maybe I'll go out for a bit._ He spread his wings, and took off.

He had to work a bit, seeing as there were no thermals to help him get a lift this time, but he was starting to get a true hang on flying.

He arced in a wide circle, all while gaining altitude. He had to admit, he felt…well, _powerful_ while flying. Not at all like a 15-year-old mutant.

Then he saw something that made him halt, hovering in the air. He scowled a bit, focusing. _Those aren't really moving, so they're not Hunters…but just as bad—DarkSpin!_

He instantly dove down, instant adrenaline fueling him. _Hope they didn't see me…then again, they might've thought I was a bird…hopefully…but they know we have wings…_

As soon as he landed, he _almost_ fell backwards in surprise when he saw that Charlemagne was standing up, watching him with narrow eyes.

He managed to keep his balance, and calmly returned the gaze. "What, I can't go out flying?" he asked, crossing his arms. She didn't say anything, but that was probably because Dax _attempted_ to sit up, only to find Bella on top of him.

"Hey, get off!" he said roughly. The 8-year-old canine hybrid was awake instantly and complied, ears back in annoyance.

In response Myron's eyes opened and he sat up quickly, saying, "Where's breakfast?"

_Figures today would start like this. _Something else crossed his mind. "Hey…how many days did you have down feathers for?" he asked Charlemagne.

"I…I'm not sure…" She actually looked confused.

"…you might want to check." Now that he thought about it, they were only in the Institute for roughly a week…and already had wings. It had taken almost a full month for his and his friends' wings to develop.

She froze, realizing what he was hinting at, and walked outside. A startled yelp proved his suspicion.

* * *

Charlemagne could only do so much as to stare. The night before, there had been nothing but white down feathers present on the newer limbs. Not anymore.

Now there were bright-gold feathers, the ones on the edge having black tips. On the undersides the feathers were more of a creamish shade, still having black tips.

Not bothering to fold her wings back in, she strode back in and promptly kicked Trey in the side. He yelped, giving her a surprised look—which turned to shock when he saw the feathers. He sat up and unfolded one of his slightly, revealing black feathers that were shot through with light-brown streaks. Jon, who had also sat up, gained a wide-eyed look and unfolded one of his wings partly to show cream-colored black-specked feathers.

Myron leaned forward a bit, eyes wide. "Whoa! Those feathers look awesome!"

The Lowlander boy looked at them, and laughed. "You should see the looks on your faces!" he exclaimed. "They're ridiculous!" He was promptly smacked in the head by the blue-eyed girl.

Said girl looked at them, and said, "I guess it's time you learned how to fly then."

All three adults suddenly seemed slightly apprehensive.

* * *

"C'mon, it's not _that_ hard!" Jinja encouraged.

"Don't forget, you've been flying for almost a month," Jon reminded. He, Trey, and Charlemagne were standing on top of the ledge, while Core-Tech, Myron and Bella were down in the meadow. Jinja noted that even Charlemagne looked a bit nervous.

"Are you _sure_ about this?" Trey asked doubtfully.

"honestly, we're not sure," Chase said truthfully.

"Vhat do you mean?" Charlemagne said immediately after.

"Well, we learned how to fly while scramming from some of the scale-freaks," Dax said. No further comments from the three adults.

Then Jinja realized that they were quietly arguing about something. Guessing what it was, she leaned forward a bit to listen in. "I'm not going first!" Trey said.

"Don't look at me," Charlemagne muttered. "I von't do it until you both get it right." Jinja smirked. _She just wants to see how it's done so she won't humiliate herself by failing epically._

"Why can't we all go at the same time?" Jon suggested.

"You know, that's a good idea," she called up. "Try it."

Charlemagne and Trey both glared at the other commander. He returned the look evenly. After a few moments the three of them looked down the ledge.

The two canine hybrids were watching intently. Otulissa was tapping one foot impatiently—she was the one to quietly remind them of their promise to Jeredy. The others simply watched.

Jinja then heard Charlemagne mutter, "Let's just get zhis over vith."

* * *

It was pathetic really. All three of them only managed to get at least seven inches off the ground—Jon getting the highest at almost a foot. "This is pointless!" Trey exclaimed, obviously frustrated.

The Commandant-Marshal looked just as agitated, but she wasn't saying anything. Jon looked miffed, but remained quiet as well—obviously he had more patience than the other two.

Chase sighed. _It didn't take me this long…then again, I had something to get me motivated._ He glanced at Lock's core as he thought this.

He jumped a bit when Bren suddenly said, "Chase? We're out of food."

"We are?" His friend nodded. Now that Chase thought about it, he hadn't noticed he was getting hungry. Said factor was a bit of an issue with them…because Otulissa had at one point told them that flying was a major calorie-burner. "Alright…Lissa!"

The girl looked up. "What's up captain?"

"We—since when did you start calling me that?"

"Right now."

"Ugh…well, we need food."

"On it!" she replied, immediately taking off.

"How does she do that?" Chase heard Trey mutter. The team leader realized that all three of them had watched Otulissa take off. _Probably for an example._

Then Beyal stood up. "Perhaps you should trust your instincts," he advised. "That is how we first flew." The response he got was three blank looks.

Jinja facepalmed, and said, "What Beyal's trying to say is you should just go for it without a plan."

At that one Jon looked unsure, while Trey had an expression that clearly said "no way." He couldn't get anything from Charlemagne on that one.

* * *

Chase had decided to call of flying practice for the night when he noticed that the three adults were starting to look a bit shaky. Big relief when Otulissa came back with some food.

Not to mention it had gotten cloudy—it looked like it was going to rain.

"Get used to it," Jinja had told them. "Can't afford luxury when you're running away from Hunters." A sad-but-true fact.

Chase made note that they'd need to find a hotel or vacant vacation home soon—they were starting to get a bit grimy again.

He checked the date on the Core-Tablet—it was almost December. He sighed, turning it off. _It's a good thing we haven't seen anything of Klipse yet. _He shuddered. _Or Dom Pyro…don't want _him_ finding out about the "wings" bit._

He tensed suddenly, feeling like he was being watched. He looked around outside, seeing nothing suspicious. He looked into the cavern—everyone else was asleep…or so it seemed.

Chase looked hard, and said quietly, "I know you're awake."

His suspicion was correct: he saw someone move, and realized it was Charlemagne who was still up. She regarded him with an even look, but Chase could tell she was wary. _I bet she's wondering why the crag we saved them._ Something else hit him.

"So…" he started slowly. "You knew my dad from before all this." No response, although she looked vaguely…amused? "Aren't you going to talk?" Still nothing. Apparently he wasn't going to get anywhere with this. He huffed. _Whatever…I'm tired anyway._

* * *

When she was sure that the kid was asleep, she sighed. He looked _way_ too much like his father for his own good. It was true, she had been good friends with Jeredy…but that was a long time ago.

She frowned slightly. What had caused them to hate each other so suddenly again…? She couldn't remember. She made a mental note to look into it.

That would be later, once she and the two commanders were safely at the nearest STORM base.

* * *

The sun hadn't started rising yet—everyone else besides her, Trey, and Jon Ace were asleep still, which was good. Of course she had actually woken up before them, in order to give herself time to shake off any drowsiness—an unfortunate factor with her in the morning.

"Vhere is zhe nearest base from here?" she asked.

"Almost five miles north-northwest," Jon replied, turning to face said direction. Charlemagne didn't know how she knew which way that was. She just did.

There would be no chance of them making it on foot without the "Hunters" as the rogue controllers called them catching them.

They couldn't use Blackbullet—that would make too much noise. So they'd have to fly there themselves. Which was the hard part.

"Can't we just walk for a bit and _then_ use the Monsunos?" Trey suggested, walking forward to the edge, looking down at the clearing below. "That should work."

It was at that moment the bit of ledge he was standing on crumbled very suddenly. She didn't really process what happened next, but the next thing she was aware of was that he was actually hovering, wings moving rapidly. "Trey," Jon said, sounding weird.

"What?"

"Look down." He did, and made the mistake of freezing—he immediately plummeted like a rock.

The incidence in which he flew reminded her of something from the night before. The white-haired boy—Beyal?—had mentioned something about instinct. That was pretty much what Trey had just done to stop himself from falling. So maybe it'd work for her.

A quick exchanged glance with Jon affirmed that he had the same idea. Even though she was silently calling herself crazy for even thinking of this, she took a deep breath, and jumped for it at the same time as the other commander, doing the uncharacteristic by acting on whatever impulse came first.

As for what happened next…well, she was simply very suddenly aware that she was flying as well.

* * *

If there was one thing Chase thought he would never see in his lifetime, it was to see Charlemagne, Trey, and Jon all skyborne. "Hey, you're flying!" he exclaimed in surprise.

All three of them were horrendously clumsy right now, but that would be worked out later—in fact, it appeared that Jon was getting the hang of it already.

The others had probably heard Chase shout, because soon they were at the cave entrance as well. "Since when were they flying?" Dax asked no one in particular.

Chase shrugged, taking off without a word. The sun was just rising, turning everything a creamish-gold color. Some stars were still visible in the sky. It was chilly, but not unpleasantly; it had indeed rained the night before, so it was somewhat wet.

One thing Chase was slightly puzzled to note was that his wingspan was roughly the same length as Charlemagne's, except hers were possibly a bit longer. _Then again, she probably just looks taller because of the shoes she's wearing,_ he thought.

Meanwhile, Trey actually looked _excited_, while Charlemagne was trying to stay expressionless, _trying_ being the key word—she was failing miserably, as Chase could see a smile forcing its way up. Jon looked flat-out amazed.

Of course they had to land after about half an hour. As for their landings…

Jon—stumbled majorly before falling.

Trey—immediate faceplant.

Charlemagne—same as Trey.

The latter two looked thoroughly humiliated during breakfast. Bren looked at the Core-Tablet, and quietly said to Chase, "Remember your promise to your dad?"

"Yeah, I know B. We'll get moving in a minute."

They went outside, and Chase explained, "We don't stay in one place for too long. You guys should know why."

"Yeah! Because of the Hunters!" Bella said.

"Exactly…Evo, launch!" He spun the core out, solely for the purpose of giving Myron and Bella a lift. The swan-condor hybrid lowered its head, letting the two canine hybrids climb on.

But just as they were about to take off, an all-too-familiar voice sounded. "And where do you think you're going?" Everyone froze. It was Alpha. As always. The green-eyed Hunter was not with him, thankfully. To Chase's confusion, he glared pointedly at Charlemagne. Was he imagining it, or did he see a look of mixed pity and regret in her eyes? As usual, the Hunters looked bloodthirsty, ready for a fight.

Something Chase wasn't in the mood for. "Fly for it!" he shouted. The usual gunshots caused the usual dose of adrenaline, giving the others the boost of energy they needed to get airborne and get away.

When he was sure they were safely away from the Hunters, he nodded slightly at Bren to lead the way to his father's hidden lab, and let himself fallback toward the three adults. "Do you know that guy?" he asked Charlemagne, not expecting an answer.

He was in for a surprise. "A long time ago," she said distantly, obviously not paying attention to whom had spoken. He saw Trey look confused, as with Jon. The latter motioned for Chase to fly over.

When he got close, Jon asked, "Chase, where are we going?"

"Uh…" The teen glanced at the other two. When he was sure they weren't paying attention, he said, "My dad has a hidden lab around here. That's where we're going."

"Is that a good idea?"

Chase shrugged. "That's what I said. Dad insisted."

"Alright then," Jon said. Chase nodded, and flew up front again. Although he had a nagging feeling that there was eventually going to be a leadership issue…


	12. Chapter XII

They were in usual daytime formation—Chase in front, Bren and Jinja a little behind, then Beyal and Dax, and then a little ways behind them were Charlemagne, Trey, and Jon.

Neither Charlemagne or Trey had said a thing, but Bren speculated that they were just enjoying the feeling of flight. He knew he was.

_I wonder what my ability's gonna be?_ He had been thinking about it almost nonstop recently. It seemed everyone was getting the cool ones: Jinja could see in the dark—reason why she led the way at night. Beyal could camouflage himself—the perfect disguise. Dax was able to know what anyone around him was planning on doing—the perfect way to know if the ones from STORM were planning anything. Apparently they weren't…yet.

Bren glanced back. _Well, Chase did say that the best way to take care of an enemy is to befriend them…might as well try…_ He adjusted his wings so he slowed a bit. "So, what's it like?" he asked, albeit nervously. "Flying, I mean."

They both looked mildly surprised, and Trey said, "It's…different." He flinched when Charlemagne gave him a look.

"What about you?" Bren directed at her. He got no response. Then, to Chase he called, "Hey Chase? How much further?"

"Only a little," he yelled back over the wind. Then: "I take that back—down there!" He turned one wing slightly so he was spiraling in a slow descent toward the ledge. Bren couldn't help but notice the bemused looks on both Charlemagne and Trey, and the apprehensive one on Jon Ace.

* * *

This time around the three adults managed to steady themselves thanks to some stalagmites that were in the ledge-cavern. "Wait here a sec," Dax said, going deeper.

Jinja knew this would be the most important part of the day. Roughly two minutes later, Jeredy came out with Dax. He blinked in surprise when he saw Myron and Bella, and cautiously regarded the ones from STORM. "Jeredy?!" Jon Ace exclaimed, sounding surprised.

The other two instantly tensed up. Trey stepped forward once, most likely out of enforced impulse, and Jeredy backed up three. Chase immediately stepped in. "Dad, it's cool." He gave a warning look to the black-haired commander, who gave him a venomous glare that stated _"I don't need to listen to you."_

Jinja decided to defuse any fights. "Look, this is one of the only places where we're actually _safe_. Can we not fight?"

There were mutters from both Charlemagne and Trey, but obviously they heeded it—they and Jon weren't too used to flying, so they couldn't go flying for too long yet.

In other words, they were exhausted from the flight. And a rest would do them all good.

* * *

Later that evening, Jeredy scanned the skies carefully. He had to admit, the area where his hidden lab was had a perfect view of the star-flecked pale blue, red-orange-yellow-purple Lowlands dusk sky. The sun hadn't quite set, tinting everything a dark reddish-orange. A crescent moon was also just barely visible in the sky—tomorrow it'd be a new moon.

It figured that Charlemagne would keep her must-be-best-at-everything habit—she was trying to practice flying. He seriously needed to ask her a few questions. When she finally came back about ten minutes later, he noted that she almost fell over after landing due to leftover momentum.

Curiosity peaking, Jeredy stepped forward. She flinched at seeing him. "Nice view isn't it?" he asked.

She looked out momentarily and then back at him. "I suppose." Her tone was carefully controlled. The Commandant-Marshal was also refusing to look at him—she was definitely avoiding something.

First things first. He took a deep breath, and asked, "Charlemagne, how did those people…?" He stopped himself. She had gone totally rigid, pupils constricting. _Maybe I should've have asked…_ he thought, a bit worried—he hadn't seen her act like this in a very long time.

Finally she shut her eyes tightly, visibly shuddering. "Don't ask," she said quickly. "_Please_."

He sighed a bit, only able to guess at what she might've gone through to get her _this_ upset. It was silence for a little. Then she surprised him by muttering, "Oh fine."

He listened carefully to her explanation, as it was quiet. As he expected—captured by "Hunters" as they were called, and brought to the Institute. He knew all about their inhumane ways from Dax. "And after that they put avian DNA in you, Trey, and Jon," Jeredy put in.

Charlemagne nodded slightly. Apparently she didn't like thinking back to that part, judging by her expression. "After zhat, I'll admit I vas unconscious most of zhe time. But vhen I vas avake…" She was shaking slightly now.

Jeredy bit his lip. Something seemed flat-out _wrong_ in seeing her in this state. She had never been like this for as long as he knew her. "You can stop now," he said quickly.

She immediately looked relieved. _Now to find a way to change the subject…_ He glanced at her wings, which she hadn't bothered folding in again. The last of the sun's rays were tinting them a reddish hue, with highlights of their true golden color, which set off the jet-black tips on the outer lower edges. Perfect.

"Your wings look nice," he commented.

Obviously she hadn't expected to hear that one, with how she reacted. "Huh?!" The scientist repeated what he had said, subconsciously fingering some of the feathers. They felt surprisingly silky, like Chase's.

There was one other thing that had been nagging at the back of his head for a long time now…and it was the perfect time to ask. "One other thing. What exactly happened…when we all started hating each other?" She didn't say anything for a minute.

Then she replied: "I'm not exactly sure."

Jeredy looked up when he heard a helicopter in the distance. "Weird," he muttered. "There usually aren't helicopters all the way out here…" Something struck him. "Unless…!" But no one heard him, because Charlemagne wasn't there at the moment. "Wha'…"

Apparently she knew something that he didn't when it came to the mysterious helicopter. Puzzled, he went in.

* * *

Beyal twitched nervously. Jinja was staring hard at the horizon—there was indeed a helicopter approaching. They were just waiting for the word if it was safe or not from her.

It wasn't to be, as her expression changed to one of dejection. "It's them," she said. "We've gotta get out of here, now."

Chase looked at his father. "Sorry dad…have to fly."

"It's alright Chase. The thing I want is for you to stay safe—_all_ of you."

The team leader looked at the two canine hybrids. "I need you both to stay here," he said. "Alright?"

They nodded, although they looked a bit sad.

Beyal glanced around at the others. They all looked apprehensive, ready to jump into flight at a moment's notice—that instinct had been developed by all of them almost simultaneously, like an upgrade to the fight-or-flight response. Of course, that went literally for them now.

So they took off, heading northwest toward the Auror Province.

* * *

They'd been flying for about six hours. Chase was practically dead on his wings. The Hunters had been after them _relentlessly_, and hadn't given them a single break. It seemed that wherever they landed, the Institute's lackeys were there waiting with tranquilizer darts and rifles.

"Chase?" Bren called. Core-Tech's leader looked over at his friend, who also looked like he'd drop out of the sky from sheer exhaustion. "I seriously need to get some sleep," he said while yawning, as if for emphasis. "Otherwise I'm gonna drop."

_Bren's right…we all need sleep._ Looking around, he saw that both Jinja and Dax had major baggage under their eyes, and by the looks of it, Beyal was nodding off, even though he was mid-air—same with Otulissa. Jon looked like he was alert, but Chase could see the drowsiness in his eyes. And though neither of them would _ever_ admit it, Charlemagne and Trey were lagging behind somewhat and blinking slowly.

So Chase turned his gaze to the ground below. He didn't have night-vision like Jinja, but it was still above-par. _C'mon…just a cave or something…_

It wasn't a cave he saw. But it was just as good. "Follow my lead, everyone!" he shouted. "Train with open boxcar!" He banked down sharply.

The others followed closely, matching their speed to that of the train's. There was indeed an open boxcar, complete with a few hay piles inside.

Dax was in first. He alighted on top of one of the hay piles, and was out in an instant, as with Bren and Otulissa, wings hanging down. Jinja was out of it as soon as her feet touched solid ground, not bothering to fold her wings. It was pretty much the same thing for Jon, Trey, and Charlemagne—Chase had to remember that their stamina when it came to flying wasn't that high yet. Of course they'd be totally exhausted. He dimly noticed Beyal land, immediately curling up and using one wing as a blanket.

As for Chase himself, he barely managed to drag himself over away from the open door before he dropped and curled up slightly, not caring where he was. _Time to get some rest…_

* * *

Otulissa yawned widely when she woke up. _Ugh, my wings are still sore from last night,_ she thought, opening one eye only to shut it again against the bright morning light.

The train was still moving, the land outside going by. She stood, stretching all six limbs before folding her wings a bit. She looked around.

Dax and Bren were still out of it on top of the hay piles they had landed on, both snoring a bit.

The younger girl grinned to herself when she saw Chase and Jinja curled up next to each other. _They're so cute together!_

At the bases of two different piles were Trey and Jon, also still asleep. Of course they'd still be asleep. Good chance that Charlemagne would be asleep for a while longer too…speaking of whom, Otulissa didn't see where she was. Or Beyal, for that matter.

When she _did_ find them, she gawked a bit. She was still where she had fallen asleep on the boxcar floor, but Beyal was curled up beside her. Good chance he had repositioned himself overnight.

For a while she looked outside, watching the scenery.

Then she was aware that someone moved behind her, and she saw that Bren had woken up. "Where are we?" he muttered. Otulissa shrugged before putting a finger up to her lips and pointing. "Oh, everyone else's still asleep…" He stared for a bit.

"Cute, right?" the younger hybrid said, laughing a bit.

He didn't say anything about it, instead saying, "I'm just wondering how the crag Alpha keeps finding us." He sounded worried.

Otulissa nodded. "It's weird." She was thinking of something…but she'd say it once everyone else was awake. Speaking of which, Dax suddenly sat up, blinking. Otulissa and Bren tensed, wondering what could have made him wake up so fast, since he was normally the last one up—although they had a guess.

"Hunters?" Bren asked warily.

Dax grimaced, nodding. "Alright," Otulissa muttered before yelling, "_Everyone up!_"

It was comical in a way, with how everyone was awake in a split second. "What's wrong?" Chase asked, eyes wide.

"Hunters," Bren said right as there was a _thud_ on top of the boxcar. Everyone froze, glancing up.

Jon motioned for everyone to wait. "I have an idea for a distraction," he explained quietly, taking out Blackbullet's core. Otulissa grinned—perfect distraction, even if only for a minute.

* * *

As soon as the falcon Monsuno appeared, all nine of them flew out of the boxcar at top speed. There had been seven Hunters on top of the boxcar, and now that Chase looked, he saw with horror that these were some of the winged ones.

"Guys incoming!" he warned when he heard sharp popping sounds—tranquilizer darts. Apparently the Hunters had been drilled to get them _alive_.

Thank God these Hunters weren't all that fast at horizontal flying, as the gap between them grew. Then he heard Beyal gasp shortly. "Beyal? What's…" Chase trailed off.

The white-haired boy's eyes fluttered, and he started losing altitude. Fast. "Beyal!" Jinja yelled, diving down. Chase followed, but someone whisked by him and Jinja both, getting there first. It was Jon Ace—he managed to catch Beyal at the very last second before the latter hit the treetops; they were over a rugged forest—it appeared they were in the foothills of Central Alappia now.

"Monkfish, you alright?" Dax asked.

"I…believe so," Beyal replied, looking severely drowsy, but still conscious. Apparently the does was of a powerful anesthetic, but not too much of it.

They hovered in place for a minute, allowing the white-haired teen shake off some of the tranquilizer before moving on.

"Now what, Chase?" Bren asked.

"We'll make a stop in Belisaere," he replied.

"I get it," Jon exclaimed. "They won't be able to actively search for us in a populated area."

"Exactly."

Bren spoke up. "Me and Lissa were going over how they keep finding us."

All of them looked at the said two. Otulissa put in, "We think one of us might have a tracker of some kind stuck on us."

The air of worry remained with them the whole flight.

* * *

Belisaere came into view in less than a half-hour. It was an old city, with gray-stone buildings that had age-old designs carved into the stone. Surprisingly, the largest buildings in the city were the town hall, library, and boarding school, having three floors. Other buildings most of the time had a single floor, and some houses and apartments had two floors.

The city was also well-known for its ice-cream. For sake of remaining inconspicuous, Otulissa and Beyal had gotten some for everyone.

It would cause quite a stir if the still-missing Commandant-Marshal and commanders of STORM suddenly reappeared in an isolated place like Belisaere—as it had gotten onto the news that they were missing almost immediately. All three of them had been silent.

"Alright," Bren said, turning the Core-Tablet on. "Let's see if anyone has a tracker."

"Um, you're clean," he said to Jon. Trey had nothing on him as well.

Charlemagne wasn't as lucky. "Ah-hah. Right on your arm…huh?" There was nothing where the Core-Tablet picked up a zipper-sized tracker.

"Might be implanted," Otulissa said.

"Wonderful," the blond woman muttered.

"We should be get it out without any equipment. A tracker that size has to be right under the surface," Jon said thoughtfully. In response, she rolled her sleeve up. It was indeed visible—Chase was wondering how they didn't notice it earlier.

"I'll handle that," Trey said, obviously just not wanting them to do it.

"And I'll go find some stuff," Jinja said. "C'mon Lissa."

* * *

Both girls were back within five minutes. Otulissa opened her bag, taking out some medical supplies. "Where did you get those?" Chase asked.

"Um…the local drug store," Jinja said, looking sheepish. "Lissa's really good at sneaking stuff out." The team leader sighed heavily. He still didn't like Otulissa's thieving, but it could prove lifesaving with the medical supplies. Such as now—making sure the Hunters can't follow.

Trey pawed through some of the things, taking a few. Chase twitched a bit. Anything involving needles—as Otulissa had taken a few bottles of a local painkiller and a few syringes—seriously freaked him out. "Uh, I'm gonna go out flying," he said, turning.

"I'll come too," Jinja said, spreading her wings.

They were airborne fast, arcing up. Some clouds were coming in—looked like it was going to start raining soon. Possibly snow.

"This is so awesome, you know what I mean?" Jinja said with a sigh.

"You got that right Jin. It _is_ awesome."

They hovered there for a while on a thermal—Belisaere's buildings were good at absorbing heat, and then throwing it back out.

Suddenly Jinja whisked by him. _What the—?_ Chase looked after her. "Jin, what are you…?"

"How about a race?" she said, a gleam in her eyes.

Chase smirked. "You're so on." He flew after her, as quick as he could go. Out of all of the avian hybrids, they were the best flyers. He had to admit, no matter how she was doing it she always held a grace to it. He was just good at maneuvering.

As he thought this, he failed to notice that he had suddenly soared past her. "Chase?!" she exclaiming, looking shocked.

Chase stopped, looking back—to see that he had gone half a mile in half a minute. "Whoa," he said, starting back.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said, although he did have an idea suddenly. "You don't think fast-flying is my ability, do you?"

"Maybe. Um, why don't we go back?"

"Sure."

No sooner did they land did Dax say, "Blazes, that was _fast_! How'd you do it?"

"Yeah! You have warp drive!" Bren added.

To put it shortly, all of them were staring at him in surprise, even Trey and Charlemagne—whom he noted had a bandage on her arm. "Is the tracker out?" Chase asked.

"Out and broken," Bren confirmed.

"Good. Let's fly."

But as they were taking off, he failed to notice the slight glare that two of the others had.


	13. Chapter XIII

**I'm just putting the rest of these up for the heck of it. ~Myra**

* * *

Beyal had been expecting rain.

Yet it was snowing.

He loved snow—it made him think of his time in Mandala, at the Library of Tebab. Of course, those days were long gone. For one, he had been _normal_ back then. Well, he still had his Monsuno Sight, so not exactly normal. But still.

Speaking of…he hadn't had a vision in a while now. He frowned slightly. _Strange…perhaps I will have a vision soon?_

And no sooner did he finish the thought did he get one.

* * *

One second they had been flying steadily through the falling snow without any incident. The next Beyal's wings suddenly folded and he dropped like a rock. "Beyal!" Jinja exclaimed, diving down. Dax was right behind her. They barely managed to catch him before he hit the ground. His eyes were glowing blue—he was definitely in the middle of having a vision.

"What happened?" Bren asked, landing. The others were behind him. Beyal blinked a few times, and shook his head.

"What was _that_ about?" Trey asked. Jinja had to remember that they had never seen that happen before. She made it a mental note to explain a little to them…but not too much. Not yet.

"It was nothing," the white-haired teen said immediately. Jinja's eyes narrowed. _Beyal said that a bit too quickly…he's hiding something. But what?_

They kept flying for another half-hour. The sun started setting, so she and Chase rotated positions. She scanned the area below for a place to stay for the night, and possibly find out what day of the month it was exactly. They all knew it was December by now, and they couldn't really use the Core-Tablet—no signal.

Jinja paused. They had reached the shoreline now. But what had her attention was a lone building—obviously a vacant vacation home. "Down there," she said. Chase squinted.

"Vacation home," he said. "Definitely empty at this time of year."

"Exactly."

They landed within four minutes. "Do you think they have electricity?" Bren asked, peering through a window. No security cameras, it looked like—no flashing lights signifying motion detectors either.

"Move," Otulissa said, taking a pin out of her pocket and going to the door. She fiddled with the lock for a few moments before the door clicked open. "Well?"

As it turned out, the house did have electricity, amazingly. And heat, which was a bonus. And some canned food, which was a double bonus.

After looking around a bit, Chase said, "We'll stay here for tonight, and take turns with the shower."

Jinja immediately called first turn with the shower.

* * *

A while later, all of them were nice and clean. Chase nearly didn't recognize Charlemagne without any makeup. Dax had voiced said fact, although a venomous look had shut him up.

Otulissa was attempting to cook with Bren's help, while Jinja had decided to cut her hair down to a bit below shoulder-length. Her excuse being that it was getting in her face while they flew.

The others' attention was fixed on the news. Apparently someone had gotten a shaky video of them flying away from Belisaere. And the media had noted that now there were nine of them instead of six.

There was also a quick article on the fact that the Commandant-Marshal and two commanders of STORM were still MIA. Said three had been completely silent.

Speaking of…Chase glanced at them. _Jon Ace I'm okay with,_ he thought. _And either it's just me, or Trey's starting to warm up to us a bit. Still can't tell with Charlemagne, though…_

He yawned. _No point in thinking about it when I'm tired,_ he thought. _I'm going to bed._

* * *

No matter what she did, Charlemagne was unable to close her eyes. Probably because she had one hell of a decision to make. They _could_ go to the nearest STORM base…but as Trey had said to her earlier while flying, it would be _fun_ to explain about the whole "wings" part. That or they could try keeping it a secret.

Or they could just stay with the rogue controllers.

A while ago, she would have instantly chosen to leave ASAP. But with what had happened so far…

She glanced around. They were all in the main room—she had instantly claimed one of the couches, while the girl with the ginger-colored wings had taken the other. The others had chosen random places on the floor—lucky for them it was carpeted. After, she sighed heavily.

Being as quiet as possible, she tapped Trey's shoulder, and did the same with Jon. They looked a mixture of tired and confused as she motioned to go outside. "What's wrong?" Trey asked.

"Ve need to leave," she replied.

"Why?" Jon asked.

"Vhy do you think?" Of course she was talking about what they had seen on the news. To her surprise, they both looked a bit hesitant, more so for Jon Ace.

Said commander looked up a bit, and said, "I can't go."

"Pardon me?" Had she heard him right?

"I can't leave. Controllers or not, they're just kids! Lissa's only _twelve_, for heaven's sake!"

She glared at him, even though she knew that was true. It didn't feel right for her, either. But she didn't have a choice, unlike him. "Suit yourself," she said quietly. "Commander Trey, are you coming or not?"

"Uh…yes ma'am!"

They both took off without another word, although she did glance back briefly.

One part of her didn't want to do this. Didn't want to leave.

She didn't know why.

* * *

In truth, Trey didn't like the idea that much either for some weird reason. It was still snowing a bit, so he had to squint in order to keep it out of his eyes. He still had no idea why that other girl led the way at night. Or why during a fight against Hunters that took place before they got to Belisaere how the white-haired kid vanished into thin air and then reappeared out of thin air…after a Hunter dropped for seemingly no reason.

One other thing lingered in his mind. Why did they stay for so long? Out of curiosity, he voiced his question to Charlemagne.

He got no reply.

* * *

When Jinja woke up, she felt like there was something wrong. She sat up, looking around. They were two short. _Figures they'd leave eventually._ She stood and stretched, being careful not to step on Bren. _At least Jon Ace stayed._

She carefully stepped over the others and took one of the ever-present granola bars, absently staring at a ginger feather on the floor.

Wait.

Ginger feather?! _That's one of mine!_ She glanced over to the couch that she had been sleeping on, and noticed another feather there. And when she checked her wings, she was indeed missing two secondary feathers. _What's going on?!_

* * *

Jinja wasn't the only one with feathers falling out. "What the crag?" Dax exclaimed when looked at one of his wings to see that a few various feathers had fallen out.

Thankfully Bren had a scientific explanation. "Molting," he said. "It looks like we all go through a molting session at the start of winter. But it looks like we have the kind of molting that makes all the feathers fall out at once…which leaves us with heavily impaired flight." He summed it up surprisingly calmly. Then again, he'd dealt with worse, so Chase couldn't be amazed that much.

"Great," Chase moaned. "How are we supposed to get around?"

"On our Monsunos, I guess," Jinja said with a shrug.

"Yes. Is that not how we always did it before?" Beyal asked.

"True that. Let's stock up and get flying…" He looked around, and added, "So they left?"

"Sometime last night," Bren said.

"Figures."

Chase paused and looked at Jon Ace. "You stayed?"

"I can't leave all of you alone."

Chase grinned. "Thanks. That means a lot."

* * *

No one had been more surprised that morning than Commander Liam Cornell. What, with the Commandant-Marshal and Commander Trey suddenly showing up.

They had been silent on the matter of Commander Ace's whereabouts.

They also refused to disclose where they had been.

* * *

Melian City was right on the southern border of the Auror Province. It was a small, rather quiet place, in stark contrast to most other cities.

"This is gonna be weird," Jinja muttered. Bren nodded. They had both decided that while they were here, they might as well get some of their own clothes from their own homes.

"Yeah! I mean, we're stealing our own stuff from our own places," Bren put in.

Beyal listened quietly. He didn't have a reason to go anywhere, so he'd e staying in the abandoned apartment they were in. Chase would go along with Bren and Jinja to act as sentry. Otulissa and Dax would go get other supplies. Jon Ace would see if there was any other information of importance on the news—mainly to see if the other two were safe.

What was troubling Beyal was the vision he had. If anything, it was the most troubling one ever.

Why was it? Because according to what he had seen, one of them was going to accidentally kill someone.

* * *

Otulissa clambered in through the window after Dax. Beyal looked up at them, and the girl threw him a small bag of chips.

Dax situated himself on a dusty cough, opening his while tossing Airswitch's core up and down. "Now we wait," he said.

Otulissa huffed—she hated staying still. "You know what, I'll look around," she said, going toward an old closet that had been left unlocked. "Never know what you can find."

She pawed around. _Whoever used to live here sure left in a hurry…there's a ton of things in here._ Such as dusty toys, out-of-style clothes, and a few books. _This coat might fit either Bren or Beyal…and Jinja might like these books._ But when she moved the box of books, something else caught her eye.

It was a semi-old picture, showing two younger teens, maybe 13 or 14.

One was a widely-grinning boy with mouse-brown hair and hazel eyes. He looked creepily familiar.

The other was a blond girl…who had yellow eyes.

* * *

Bren was sure to close and latch the window behind him. Lucky both his parents were at work—he'd reluctantly taken some food as well.

He'd also made the decision to leave his glasses hidden in a drawer. He didn't exactly need them, so…

He met up with both Chase and Jinja a minute later, perched on the local high-school's roof. Obviously a weekday, since students were present—he thought he saw one or two of his other, _normal_ friends in there.

Chase scanned the horizon. "They knew we were going to Melian City," he mumbled to himself.

"Who do you mean?" Jinja asked.

Bren had an idea. "Chase, you know they're probably not gonna come back," he said.

"I know that B," his best friend responded. "I just can't help it."

"Whatever," Jinja said. "Let's just get back to the others. I'm getting hungry."

* * *

Trey figured the first two days back would go like this—endless questions from the soldiers. Naturally he refused to answer any of them, except for the ones he could make simple white lies for.

One of the unexpected factors was the fact that he felt edgy whenever there were too many people around. Also whenever he was in an enclosed space…which was at all times in the base.

He blamed being stuck in a dog crate. Something told him it wasn't just that, though.

Another, more troubling factor lied with the fact that both he and the Commandant had suddenly started losing feathers. Some of which had been found outside by a few soldiers. Some _inside_.

What an instant alarm that was, when someone showed him one of his own feathers!

Making sure no one was around, he groaned and punched a wall. It stung mildly, but not too much. It was nice and clear out—maybe he'd go out for a quick flight later.

And when that time came, he actually wasn't that surprised to find that Charlemagne had the same exact thoughts that he did.

* * *

The Hunter put a pair of military-grade binoculars up to his face. Two of the avian hybrids—perfect. It was two of the adult ones as well. He grinned sadistically—he was hoping to see some bloodshed.

Beta was one of a newer batch of Hunters—one of the special batches genetically engineered to have less pain receptors, and to be more violent. Already he had worked his way up in rank, and he was in his prime—only three years old. As most Hunters fell apart and died at six years.

As was the curse of most of the recombinant experiments.

"Beta, what are our orders?" a subordinate asked. The subordinate was a six-year-old—probably wouldn't last much longer.

Alongside him was Alpha, untransformed, watching with narrow crimson eyes.

"Catch them—dead or alive, I don't care," the yellow-eyed Hunter said, still watching the two. He spread his batlike wings, ready for battle.

"Beta, you have your orders," Alpha reminded. "They must be _alive_."

"I'm the one leading this mission," Beta snarled back. "You aren't. You're too soft for this."

Alpha's eyes narrowed down to slits as he glared at Beta, though was unnoticed.

* * *

One second it was quiet. The next, they had Hunters drop on them from above.

Though he would _seriously_ wonder why later, Trey was actually wishing the Lowlander kid was there, with his uncanny way of knowing when a Hunter attack was going to happen.

Impulsively he kicked one in the face, sending it reeling back.

Meanwhile, Charlemagne had barely dodged one Hunter's claws and retaliated by punching it in the snout, then kicking another in the wing, causing it to plummet, shrieking.

He really wanted to spin out one of his Monsunos, but remembered at the last moment that the Hunters tended to be armed with a working anti-Monsuno weapon.

The brief pause proved to almost be fatal, as he barely ducked out of the way of a red-eyed Hunter's attack that would've hit him in the eyes. _Wait!_ Red-eyed Hunter? It was Alpha!

The leader Hunter was easy to recognize—even while untransformed, he always had claws and fangs. He was untransformed now. "Figures you'd go home," he said, lacking the usual sneer for once. "But it was a bad move."

_I see that now,_ Trey thought, wary.

"But you shouldn't be worried about me," the red-eyed man continued. _Huh?_ Alpha glanced upward, and Trey did as well—and froze.

The commandant was fighting one-on-one with an unfamiliar, transformed yellow-eyed Hunter. And the Hunter clearly had the upper hand.

Acting fast, the commander surged up and kicked the Hunter in the back, causing him to drop a few feet down. Said Hunter snapped an order at one of the green-eyed ones, who flew at them…

And suddenly dropped like a rock before Trey could even think about hitting it. "Oh dear," Alpha said languidly. "Looks like he expired."

It was pretty much a stalemate then—the two avian hybrids three yards away from the now five-strong cluster of Hunters. "Vhat do you mean?" Charlemagne queried, though she sounded slightly winded from the fight. Not to mention worried.

"The thing about us recombinants is that…well," Alpha started. "Our DNA is unstable most of the time, so eventually it begins to…unravel. Said recombinant shall effectively self-destruct, and die."

Trey felt like he'd froze right then and there. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Charlemagne had gone very pale as she realized what he was saying.

The yellow-eyed Hunter sneered at them, "Who knows when you winged freaks' death-dates are?"

At that point, neither of them could take it. They whirled around and flew as fast as they possibly could toward the base.

* * *

If they were really pouring on speed, any of them could easily hit eighty miles an hour, although it was taxing on stamina. Seeing as they were fueled by adrenaline, both Charlemagne and Trey probably topped ninety-five.

The blond-haired woman landed rather clumsily on the roof of the base, shaking slightly. What Markl had said—that recombinants "self-destructed" eventually…did that include them?

She knew one thing was certain. She just couldn't stand it inside the base anymore. She'd never had a problem with it before…but things weren't like that anymore.

Far from it.


	14. Chapter XIV

Chase reluctantly made the decision to get moving. "Don't want to stay in one place for too long," he said. "Never know when the Hunters will find us." Jon Ace had agreed with him.

So they were riding between Evo, Wingblade, and Blackbullet. Chase had almost forgotten how fun it was to ride on a flying Monsuno. _We should do this more often—we can go a lot farther than when we're only using wingpower._

One thing lingered in his mind however. _Hope those two didn't get recaptured…or worse. I don't like them, but I don't want to see them dead either._

* * *

Trey was puzzled. "Ma'am, what are you doing?" he asked.

She paused, glancing at him before saying slowly, "One last order." He didn't recognize the emotion distinguishable in her tone. "Zhen ve take our leave."

It took a moment for that to sink in. "You mean…?"

"Yes, Trey. We're leaving."

He was silent, shocked. "Then, who—?"

"Commander Cornell vill be in charge until further notice."

"Right…" It was obvious—Liam was the only other commander besides himself and Jon Ace. "But where _will_ we be going?"

She gave him a look. "Vhere do you think?"

"Find the others…?"

"Yes." After they gathered some supplies—including some food and clothing more suited for travel—but before they got out through the same window they came in from, she hesitated and said, "If zhey are not there, I know someone else who can find zhem."

* * *

Jinja was awake very suddenly. That had been happening to her a lot recently.

It was morning, the sky a pale silver-gray. It was also flurrying a bit, and it was somewhat foggy. She looked around—everyone else was still asleep. _Maybe I'll go out for a quick flight._ A habit she had started developing—going out for a flight early in the morning, usually right after she woke up.

Bren had brought an interesting fact up the night before—it seemed that the avian DNA put into them were all based on some kind of raptor. While gliding, she took account of her wings in general, not just feathers. _Maybe a hawk?_ She knew that Beyal was definitely some kind of owl, as with Otulissa—they both had serrated edges on their feathers' leading edge; the function of which enabled owls to fly silently.

Dax? A goshawk of some sort.

Jon? Eagle. His wings just had that kind of powerful build to them.

Bren…some kind of falcon. His wings had a narrow build. It had been the same with Trey.

Now that she thought about it, Charlemagne's had looked similar to a hawk's as well.

As for Chase…she wasn't really sure. At first glance they resembled a falcon's, as they looked narrow—but at the same time they were more angular. _Like an osprey's._

Suddenly she heard something, and looked down. _Hunters?_ No, too small. But whatever it was, it had _scales_, like a snake's. And another had_ fur _and a _tail_.

_Another escaped experiment?_ She tucked in her wings and dove down, silently landing behind the two.

One was obviously a girl, maybe four years old. She was covered in emerald-green scales. The other, a boy, looked about nine. He was covered in gray-and-white fur that had rosette patterns, resembling a snow leopard—his hair was a silverish white as well. His ears also looked like said big-cat's. "Hi," she said, causing both of them to whirl around. The girl had snake-like blue eyes, and a forked tongue which flicked out every few seconds. The boy had whiskers and dark-amber eyes, which were wide in shock.

"Who are you?" he asked, surprising her.

"Jinja." She didn't bother folding her wings in, and both kids were staring at them in awe. "Did you get away from the Institute too?"

"No, we're from the University."

"Huh?"

"You don't know?" he asked. "There's more than one station. The University is in Axistown."

"How did you get out?"

"Coryn got us out, three years ago. He's in charge of us." He paused. "Right…my name's Daniel. This is Hinata. And—are there others like you? With wings, I mean?"

"Yeah, six others. They were sleeping, last time I checked."

"Can you go get them? There's a safe place where we and our friends have been living."

Safe place? Was there such a thing?

If Daniel, Hinata, and their "friends" had been there for three years, then it had to be so.

* * *

"Chase!"

Jinja's shout made said teen literally jump up, wings flared and ready for takeoff. "What's going on?" he asked. The others were also up, wide-eyed.

"Look down there." Chase complied, and blinked. Down on the forest floor were two kids, one looking like a 4-year-old girl and the other a 9-year-old boy. Neither were fully human.

"Whoa," he said, gliding down.

"Uhm…hi?" the boy said, looking amazed. Obviously he was part snow-leopard. "My name's Daniel. This is Hinata."

The girl—who had snake scales—smiled, showing little fangs and a forked tongue. The others came down as well. "Cool," Bren said, eyes wide. Then: "Hold on, where did…"

"They're from some place in Axistown…there's another one," Jinja said darkly.

"Great…so even if we did find a way to take the Institute down, we'd have that other place."

"Um, I hate saying it, but it isn't just those two. From what I've heard, there's one out in Isemon City, and another somewhere in Central Alappia. And one in Northpoint."

_He's kidding!_ Chase thought, horrified.

Somehow the serpent hybrid must have picked up on his distress, for she hesitantly walked up to him and gripped his sleeve, smiling.

He laughed a bit. Jinja asked, "So where's this 'safe place' you were telling me about?"

"Oh, right! Follow me, guys!"

The snow-leopard hybrid took off into the conifers, Hinata close behind. "Hey, wait up!" Chase shouted, sprinting after them. The others were hot on his heels, ignoring branches and pinecones they stepped on—as their shoes had started wearing out. Meaning they needed new ones.

Abruptly they found themselves facing a stone cliff that had a gaping opening that seemed to swallow up the fog. Daniel glanced back at them before going inside, Hinata behind him.

"Chase, is this safe?" Bren asked, sounding worried.

"This is only a guess, but…I guess. And if there's trouble, we have our Monsunos, remember?"

"Right…" Bren gripped Quickforce's core.

"I'll lead the way, then," Jon said, starting in. Chase was close behind, and the others followed suit after that.

* * *

Bren kept staring. As did the others.

"Whoa," Chase said, eyes wide. "It's a whole town!"

It was an apt description. There were tents set up all throughout the cavern, which had a skylight at the way top, letting in light (of course) as well as some snow flurries.

But what really had all their attention was the inhabitants. All of them were mutants. There were multiple canine and serpent ones, as well as a few cat-type ones in the mix.

Suddenly Hinata pointed to someone who looked perfectly normal. He looked maybe to be 18, and had reddish-amber hair and light-amber eyes. He was striding toward them in a serious manner, causing Chase to impulsively tense. "Daniel, who are they?" he asked instantly, eyes narrow.

"I found them in the forest, Coryn," the snow-leopard hybrid replied. "All avians."

"Coryn" gained a shocked look. "Impossible," he muttered, looking over them. "I thought I was the only one left…"

"Wait, what do you mean by 'only one left'?" Jinja asked.

In response, Coryn spread orangish-red wings that looked to be maybe just a few inches longer than Dax's. "Blazes—how many are there?" the Lowlander exclaimed, looking surprised.

"There used to be two others besides myself," Coryn explained. "Blythe and Faolan. Except…" His eyes darkened in sorrow. "They're both dead now."

"What happened?" Chase asked.

"Not here. Follow me," he said turning.

* * *

He led them up to a ledge that jutted out from the wall about forty feet up. Hence a hand-drawn sign that said **"Danger! High ledge"**.

"So you're all avian hybrids," Coryn said, looking at them.

"Yeah. So?" Dax asked. Coryn radiated an aura of mistrust. He would kill them if they proved to be threats of any kind. So Dax knew to watch his mouth in this case. He spread his wings a bit to prove his statement.

Immediately Coryn relaxed. "So Danny was right," he said.

"Okay, so what about those other two you told us about?" Chase asked.

Coryn glanced at them. "It's a long story," he said.

"It's a long day."

The older boy smirked a bit. "Nice one." He sat on a rock. "Where to start…right. See, the animal-hybrid project has been going on for longer than you guys have been alive. Even you." The last part was directed at Jon, who looked surprised. "Me, Blythe, and Faolan were the prototype avians—the first ones to live past a week."

Jinja spoke up. "Yeah…I remember someone saying that we were the first ones to survive whatever they did to us to make us part bird…"

"Yeah. The risky part of messing with genetics is that if they mess something vital up, good chance you'd die."

_Whoa…they could've killed us?!_ Dax thought, shocked. The others looked just as horrified that those "scientists" could have very well wound up dead, just for an experiment.

"Continuing," Coryn said. He seemed to be lightening by the second, which Dax found weird. "The nutheads made the fatal mistake of teaching us how to fly…outside."

"So you flew away," Jon said.

Chase grinned. "No wonder they made me learn inside."

"Did they? Hah." Coryn turned serious again. _Mood swings, much?_ "Well, me and my friends did manage to stay hidden…for a while."

"What happened?" Otulissa asked at the same time as Bren's "Uh-oh…"

Coryn nodded slowly. "Yeah. We were out flying, and before I knew it…BAM." He sighed sadly. "They were dead before they hit the ground, though I'm sure that was a mistake on their part. I got the hell out of there right after."

"Holy crag," Chase said quietly. "That's harsh."

"Yeah. So once I found this place, I decided I was gonna rescue as many other recombinants as possible. Heh, I broke everyone here out of the one in Axistown myself—that's the one that's been running the longest. I WOULD'VE gone to the one in Coastal City…but believe it or not, someone else did first. Government, if you can believe it."

"STORM, in other words," Jon put in. "I heard about that." Dax noted that he didn't say he was part of STORM.

Jinja nodded. "Us too." Dax couldn't help but remember the cougarfish. He remembered something else as well.

"Hey wait a second!" he cut in. "Remember that other picture? The fuzzy one with the Monsuno-thing?"

"Oh yeah!" Bren exclaimed. He pulled the Core-Tablet out…only to look shocked before shouting, "Crag! It's out of juice!"

"Figures that would happen eventually," Jinja noted. "Everything portable runs out of electricity eventually."

"Yeah," Coryn said. "And I hate to tell you, but we don't have any electricity here…now, where did you guys get your wings from?"

"In the Lowlands."

"Institute…that's one of the nasty ones. They're in charge of all the Hunters. Guess they're on the avian experiment now too." He paused. "And…what's a Monsuno?"

* * *

Charlemagne had guessed that the others would have moved on, but she couldn't help but feel somewhat dejected that they weren't there. So they moved on to Plan B—finding Jeredy. He would know where to find them.

They were passing over the northernmost part of the Lowlands now. It was still early, but there were a few thermals here and there. That was one of the best parts of flying—when they didn't have to work that much, simply glide.

Of course both she and Trey had to make it so that they wouldn't be instantly recognized if they passed through a town. Different clothes helped.

When they reached the ledge (at least she thought it was the right one) something didn't feel right. It was too quiet. "Something's wrong," Trey muttered.

They both froze when they heard something move…but it was only Myron and Bella. Who tackled them both, hard. "_You're okay!_" Myron cried, literally.

If anything, crying kids were definitely _not_ her specialty. Bella looked at them all teary-eyed. "The Hunters came a week ago," the canine hybrid stuttered. "And they took Jeredy!"

Feeling as though a ton of ice water just got dumped on her, she swore mentally before turning toward Trey. "Find zhe others," she said.

"What about you?" He studied her expression carefully before saying, "You aren't really going to go there yourself, are you?"

"Exactly."

He opened his mouth, as if to argue, but thought better of it and sighed. "Fine," he muttered.

But right before he took off, an unfamiliar female voice sounded. "I'm with bird-boy on that one."

All four hybrids whirled around to see someone who had silverish white hair wearing a beige-camouflage suit, who looked to be maybe 21. It took Charlemagne a few moments to realize that this person had _fur_. Not to mention a tail, and catlike ears. Oh, and whiskers. "You must be crazy if you think that you can go in there alone. You'd be captured yourself in less than a minute."

"Not after midnight."

"Think again, birdie. They have Hunters and actual security systems now. You'd need some kind of backup…and you've got some—me."

"Hold it—who are you, anyway?!" Trey cut in.

The leopard girl froze. "Right…" Then she smirked in an irritating way. "Name's Larmina."

She moved fast—and literally shoved Trey off of the ledge. He yelped before spreading his wings to stop his fall. "What was that for?!" he shouted back up.

"You need to go and find some other people…?"

Charlemagne heard the commander say something before turning away. Larmina looked at her. "Now, let's go. We can get there by nightfall."

"I can handle myself," the blond woman growled.

The snow-leopard hybrid paused, whiskers twitching. Was she _amused_? Then she laughed. "Really? You don't look like it."

Charlemagne desperately wanted to snap at this irritating person that she was the Commandant-Marshal of STORM. She stopped herself at the last second.

She had to remember that she no longer could claim that title. For now, anyway.


	15. Chapter XV

"Alright, so you both stay here," Larmina said to Myron and Bella. Both nodded. The snow-leopard hybrid nodded as well. "Alright then. Let's go."

They had walked—as Larmina had advised against flying—a mile toward the Institute. The two canine hybrids would remain hidden in a small cave.

Larmina had also gone to cut the wires to the security systems, which had recently been installed. Easy to do, since the wires were kept in a separate building that wasn't that well guarded—apparently whoever designed it thought it would be inconspicuous. Not.

So now it was a waiting game.

Of course Larmina decided to make it hard for Charlemagne. "So, who are you trying to get out of here?" she asked.

"A…friend."

The snow-leopard hybrid raised an eyebrow. "Really? What's this _friend_'s name?"

"Zhat is none of your concern."

"Aww, why?"

The avian hybrid groaned. "Fine…Jeredy."

"Let me guess—boyfriend?"

"_Huh_?" She immediately flushed. "N-No!"

"Really? Because you're blushing like crazy—"

"Shut up!"

* * *

Larmina was always one for teasing in a friendly manner, even if the one being teased didn't think it was friendly. Obviously this avian was one of those many. She had been forced to ask one of the dog kids what her name was—Charlemagne.

_I wonder if…_ "So your name's Charlemagne."

"And?"

"You wouldn't perhaps be the Commandant-Marshal of STORM, would you?"

Immediate response: she froze briefly before saying quietly, "Not anymore."

Larmina understood. It would be very, supremely bad if anyone in said government agency figured out their boss was a winged freak. Then again, Larmina herself was a furry, whiskered, tailed freak. She felt the need to point this out. "Hey, at least you only have wings. I have fur, whiskers, _and_ a tail to deal with!"

No reply. Figures. _Maybe I went a bit too far with the "boyfriend" comment…? It's obviously true, though. Heck, she's still blushing a bit._

The time had come. They silently approached the Institute. No one in the lobby—good. Larmina had never been in this building herself, but she could sense the anxiety on Charlemagne—one of the advantages of whiskers. Obviously this had been where she had gotten her wings. "Let's just find him and go," Larmina muttered.

"How do you know vhere he is?"

"Avians have a particular shared scent to them." The snow-leopard hybrid sniffed for emphasis. "This way."

The sound of their footsteps echoed in the hall. Larmina made sure to pause by each door, sniffing to see if there are any occupants. _That's definitely not him…that one's dead…so is that one…jeez, what's wrong with these guys?!_ She stopped by the last one, sniffing hard. "Ah-hah."

* * *

Jeredy looked up sharply when the door opened. _I thought they all left after midnight…?_ Then he blinked in surprise. Staring at him was someone who looked perhaps 21. She had silvery-white hair tied back in a ponytail, and had light-amber eyes. The most distinguishing factors were that she had whiskers, fur, and a tail. She smiled, showing pointed teeth. "Found you."

Right as Jeredy was about to ask who she was, she was literally shoved out of the way, and he saw someone he recognized—and was shocked to see. He sat up, forgetting to fold his wings. "Charlemagne?!"

He almost hadn't recognized her without any makeup. Or in a different outfit. She still had Driftblade's core, of course, but still.

He only remembered the wings when he saw her eyes widen. "You too?" he heard her whisper.

He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah…not fun."

"You idiot." It sounded like an insult, but he heard relief in her voice.

Suddenly the snow-leopard girl went stiff, and said, "Incoming Hunter! Just one…" She ran in and picked the lock to his crate. He was out instantly, right as he heard a too-familiar voice.

"Well, if it isn't Charlemagne." It was Alpha.

* * *

Despite herself, Charlemagne had to try very hard to keep a straight face. What, with her ex-best friend standing in front of her. "We need to chat, you and I," the crimson-eyed Hunter snarled. He wasn't transformed, like last time.

"About vhat?" Her tone was carefully controlled, expression showing no emotion. Something she had become good at over the last 22 years…

"I need to know something." Now he looked hurt. "Why didn't you come?"

"Pardon me?"

"You said we'd always look out for each other. What happened to that?"

It took a few moments for her to remember. "Everyone thought you vere dead," she answered truthfully, quietly. "And I have my own question—how did…?"

Alpha's—Markl's—eyes darkened. "The scientists were the ones who kidnapped me that day. I distracted them long enough for you to get away."

_Now_ she remembered that day: they had been out on a walk near a forest, and they had thought it was a cougar. Markl, being the idiot he was, said he'd distract it. She had simply run for it.

That had been the last time she had seen him—and his family had hastily moved out of Melian City after that, not bothering to pack any of Markl's things. She hadn't been the same after that.

Behind her, Larmina was trying to sneak down the hall with Jeredy. Another voice then sounded. "You both had better not be going anywhere." From behind Markl came three…people? They looked human enough. She only wondered because she knew that things that looked human at first glance might not be normal. She herself was an example.

Two were boys, the last one and the one who had spoken was a girl. They studied her, then Jeredy. One of the boys smiled in a way that unnerved her. "Here's a surprise," he said. "I was sure that we got you both and that other guy hating each other."

Jeredy froze, turning around. "What do you mean?" he asked quietly. Charlemagne wanted to know that as well.

The other boy said, "That day 22 years ago, when you lost that friendship of yours. Don't you think it was a bit…suspicious?"

"Vhat do you mean?"

The girl smiled again, a creepy look in her eyes. "Watch. You'll see…"

About ten seconds went by. The blond woman had no idea how to process what she was looking at. Behind her, she heard Jeredy make a choked sound.

Because those three people in front of them had actually _changed their appearances_…so that they resembled what she, Jeredy, and Emmanuel Klipse had looked like 22 years ago, right down to the exact-same clothing. "It was a perfect first test," the girl said.

Even Markl looked put off by this. "What are you three doing here?" he snarled. Obviously he knew them. And didn't like them.

"You've been doing poorly, Alpha," the one that looked like Emmanuel said. "So we'll be finishing this. The Director has given the order to terminate the avian hybrids."

Charlemagne did not want to stay and learn what the shapeshifting mutant meant by "terminate."

Apparently Markl knew what it meant, for he yelled, "Run!" He instantly transformed, snarling loudly enough to cause the shapeshifters to jump slightly.

"You heard 'im!" Larmina shouted, breaking into a sprint.

They were relying purely on memory to find their way, while Jeredy was just following the snow-leopard hybrid. As soon as they were outside, Charlemagne was skyborne faster than she knew she was capable of.

It took her a few moments to remember that Myron and Bella were there. And that they and Larmina couldn't fly. And that Jeredy most likely didn't know how to fly yet.

So one idea seemed plausible to her. She spun out Driftblade.

It felt very weird doing it by hand. Especially since she didn't have her gloves—they had been taken by one of the scientists when she and the two commanders had first been captured. Same thing with her whip.

Myron and Bella both stared open-mouthed. Larmina's eyes went wide in shock. Jeredy looked surprised, but that was it.

The lion-like Monsuno actually seemed to know what she had in mind, for he lowered himself to the ground, allowing them to climb on.

Of course this form of transportation would be available for eight minutes only, but it would be enough. Then she frowned.

Since when did she refer to Driftblade as "he"?

* * *

Out of all of them, Chase was the most surprised. Or, maybe not as much as Jon. They had been out for a quick flight, when a familiar avian hybrid almost crashed into Dax. Namely, Trey.

"Trey! What are you…?" Jon started.

"Not now," the black-haired man got out, looking winded. Then he said something which instantly got Chase worried. "Hunters got Jeredy."

Right before Chase was about to say something, Jon asked, "And where's Charlemagne?"

"That's what I'm worried about. She went with some leopard-girl to get him…"

"What the crag are we waiting for then?!" Chase exclaimed. "We have to get there!"

"I'm with Chase on this," Otulissa said. "Jeredy's the only nice scientist I've ever met. He _really_ doesn't deserve to be in there!"

* * *

They had been flying straight toward the Institute for almost four hours.

The faster they got there to save his father, the less damage the wackos at the Institute could do. And although he was seriously wondering why, he was hoping that the Commandant-Marshal of STORM hadn't gotten herself recaptured.

Chase realized that he had forgotten to ask Trey why he and Charlemagne had gone to find his dad. No matter—he'd just ask Charlemagne.

Beside him, Dax perked up suddenly. "What is it?" Chase asked.

"I see something. Up ahead. Looks like two awkward eagles."

"Huh?" Chase squinted against the light. Dax was right—there were two bird-looking figures heading toward them that looked like large eagles, or possibly condors.

But as they got closer, Chase suddenly and impulsively grinned. Those weren't birds. They were human-avian hybrids.

The identity of one he wasn't sure what to feel on—Charlemagne.

The identity of the other leaving him a weird mixture of shocked and happy—his father. Chase was wondering how the heck he was flying already, because he had probably only had the wings long enough to just have gotten the flight feathers recently…then again, Chase himself had learned fast. So it was probably inherent.

"Dad!" he exclaimed happily, performing a perfect flying tackle-hug.

The impact caused them both to drop a few feet in altitude, but all Jeredy said was, "At least I was ready for it this time."

"Doc?" Dax exclaiming, looking a bit surprised. "Since when did you have feathers?"

"Two days ago. I know what you meant when you said that it hurt." He grimaced as he said this.

"Well, at least we're all together again," Chase said while grinning widely. Something else came to his mind. "By the way…" He looked at both Charlemagne and Trey. "I thought you two went back to STORM."

They both went stiff, glancing at each other quickly. Finally the blond-haired woman got out, "It…didn't feel right."

Chase knew what she meant. _Yeah, I'd probably go nuts if I was stuck in a building 24/7 too. _"At least we're all safe. That's what matters."


	16. Chapter XVI

It was puzzling. Bren didn't have the ability to read thoughts or anything like that, but he knew the unspoken question that passed between all ten of them: _Where are the Hunters?_

It had been three whole weeks since they last saw even one.

So in honor of the hiatus in having to run (fly) away, they were going toward Coastal City. It wouldn't be as warm as last time, since it was now the dead of winter—mid-January.

Bren still had no idea what his ability was. And they were all also beginning to wonder about Charlemagne, Trey, and Jon. None of them had showed signs of any kind of abilities yet. Or Jeredy for that matter.

* * *

It was late afternoon when they arrived. They took the risk of landing in the park—no one was around, anyways.

They were also starting to get decent with speed-landings…except for Jeredy, who hadn't quite worked out regular landings yet. Then again, he was still somewhat new to it.

"Why are we here again?" Trey asked.

"Two things," Chase said. "Well, three actually…" Jinja blinked, wondering what this sheepishly-admitted third reason was, until he added, "A few of us need haircuts."

"I'm with you on that one," Bren said immediately.

"Yeah," Dax muttered. Jinja hadn't really thought about it, but the boys she knew well were in need of haircuts.

Something came to her mind as well. "Hey Chase? Do you think we can find a hotel or something? I'd kill for an actual bed right now…"

"Sure thing…if we had any money on us."

"Leave that to me," Otulissa said, jogging off. Within ten minutes she came back with two wallets. "Don't worry, I'll do what I did last time," she said.

Judging by his expression, Chase still wasn't too fond of Otulissa's ways.

* * *

Chase decided that they were going to rest for the night before dealing with he had in mind.

A cheap hotel was a bit difficult to find, but they managed. Lately the news had been the favorite TV channel to watch.

One thing that had Chase shocked was not only had Charlemagne and Trey chosen to leave whatever STORM base they had gone to willingly, but apparently a legit note of "temporary leave" was found for them and Jon Ace, leaving another commander that Chase didn't know in charge "until further notice."

The six younger avian hybrids were sharing one room, while the four adults were in the adjacent room, which was connected. They had their wings partly out—of course having the doors looked.

And if anything, Chase was more worried about an impending Hunter attack. He just had that feeling that one was going to happen soon.

* * *

Beta smirked maliciously. Alpha had finally screwed up big-time. So now Beta was the Alpha, while _Markl _was being considered for termination.

Best of all that meant he could do what he wanted. Especially since the Director decided it would be safer to study the bird freaks if they either had clipped wings, or were dead.

Alpha preferred the latter.

* * *

Of all things to happen, Jeredy had not expected the Institute's chimeric hybrids to show up at his lab. Myron and Bella had managed to get away…so they had taken him instead.

As well as most of his research on Monsunos.

But that was _nothing_ compared to the first two days he had been in the Institute. Dax had been correct in saying that his wings' growing-in was painful. And before he had known it, he woke up with white down feathers.

Then the night that the snow-leopard hybrid Larmina had rescued him, he had flight feathers. Well, Charlemagne had helped too.

And then what those three shapeshifting experiments had told and showed them…

That it hadn't really been his two closest friends he had argued so bitterly with, bitterly enough to end their friendship…

Well, those three had some _SERIOUS_ payback coming at them.

He speculated it would be a double-dose, but he had no idea what Charlemagne was thinking of it. In fact, she was always silent when he was around. She wouldn't even respond to Jon or Trey. She refused to even glance at him.

And he just couldn't think of something to say.

* * *

Later on he was woken up by a cold chill. _Why is the window open?_ Jeredy thought. He stood, meaning to go close it, when he noticed that someone particular was missing. _Better go find her,_ he thought. _Before something else does…_

He climbed out and spread his wings. They were a midnight-blue color, with pale-blue streaks—very much like Chase's. Total wingspan of fifteen-and-a-half feet, like both Trey and Jon.

It was one in the morning, so lights were limited to streetlamps. And the once-in-a-blue-moon car. And despite Coastal City being in a semi-tropic area, it was still occasionally cooled enough for snow. Such as now.

Times like this he wished he had Jinja's nighttime infrared sight. He still didn't understand the physics of that…or his son's incredible flight speed. Or Dax's uncanny way of knowing intentions. Or how Beyal camouflaged himself…or how Otulissa could convince two different people to let her borrow their wallets…

He shook his head. _Focus, Jeredy,_ he told himself. _Find Charlemagne._ He looked hard, relying only on muted moonlight—it was indeed flurrying a bit. He paused when he saw something on a building roof closer to the ocean. _There she is!_

Jeredy went in close and landed as silently as possible. She was just sitting there, wings unfolded slightly. He came up behind her, resulting in her tensing before turning around. Her eyes widened in surprise. "What are you doing out here?" he asked.

All she said in response was "How did you know I left?"

"You left the window open," the scientist deadpanned. Apparently she had forgotten about that…forgetting things was uncharacteristic for her. Something was definitely bothering her. "What's wrong? You never forget things like that…" She didn't reply, turning abruptly. He sat next to her. "Really, I can tell something's bothering you."

"You vouldn't understand," she said quietly. Another thing uncharacteristic for Charlemagne. He frowned a bit. Either it was just a trick of the faint light, or she was blushing a little.

So he just waited. Though after a few minutes, he asked, "Aren't you cold at all? You didn't bring your jacket…"

"I'm fine," she said. Yeah right—he knew she wasn't fond of cold weather, and could see her shivering slightly. Strange, he never would have noticed that before…then again, avian hybrids had superior eyesight.

"And what exactly wouldn't I understand?" Jeredy pressed.

She sighed heavily, before glancing at him sideways in a partial glare and saying, "You vere too—damn—oblivious. You still are." He could clearly discern the hurt in her voice at the last part.

At first he wondered what she meant. Then it hit him like a cinderblock. _Wait…is she saying that—_oh_. _He bit his lip slightly, looking a bit sheepish. _I'm such an idiot!_

Again he didn't know what to say. He would admit it, he felt very, very awkward about the whole entire situation. But right as he was about to suggest heading back, he suddenly became aware that she was asleep. He groaned mentally. _Guess I'm staying out here…_

* * *

Chase yawned widely. First good sleep in a while. _Wish we could always have actual beds…_ Unfortunately, at Coryn's hideout, they only had blankets that were "scavenged" from houses, clotheslines, and such. And no actual heating systems, so campfires were a must.

He glanced outside, and was in for a shock. _Whoa—never been up _this_ early!_ It was dawn. Sun hadn't even started rising. _Eh…maybe I'll go on a quick flight._

But right before he was about to go out through the window, he heard Jinja say blearily, "Chase? You're up early."

He turned to see that she had sat up. She looked a bit weird with shorter hair, but he'd get used to it. "Going out for a quick flight," he said quietly.

"Count me in." She threw her jacket on. He did the same and grinned before jumping out, spreading his wings. She was right behind him.

Now the sun was just starting to rise, tinting everything a gold color. The light was also glinting off of the ocean, causing Chase to have to squint to see. It stung a bit, so he decided to focus elsewhere.

Jinja was about two feet below and a foot over away in the air from him, gazing around. The early light showed that she had a few amber streaks here and there on her wings, which seemed to glow. He had to admit, she had pretty wings. Actually, she was pretty altogether…

"Um, Chase?" she asked.

"What?"

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Uh…" He hastily looked away, trying to stifle the furious blush that was coming up._ I was staring? _Chase shut his eyes. _Good thing Dax isn't here…or Lissa. I would've never heard the end of it._

* * *

Jinja shook her head in exasperation. She had only just noticed that he was looking at her…mainly because she was discreetly doing the same.

He had matured big-time over the past few months…living through a whole month of torture tended to do that, along with other stuff.

She looked down at the city below—and stopped, frowning a little. _There's someone down there…or two?_ "I'll be right back," she said to Chase, who nodded. Then she angled her wings slightly so that she was in a quick descent. When she did land, she was…well, saying she was only surprised would be an understatement.

She was barely able to suppress a giggle at the scene. _No wonder she never even looked at him lately!_ It was a cute little scene, in a weird way. Apparently Charlemagne had decided to go out for a late-night flight, and Jeredy had followed. And they had both fallen asleep.

Jinja was considering waking them up, but someone else did that for her. "What have we here?"

She knew that voice—coldly smooth and sounding like shattered ice.

It was the yellow-eyed Hunter, Beta—already transformed. Along with three other Hunters.

* * *

Chase was simply enjoying an early-morning thermal when he heard Jinja shout for him. He looked down—and almost stalled in flight.

Five Hunters. _I knew it!_ He tucked his wings and dove down as fast as he could and land safely. To his surprise, he saw both his father and Charlemagne there. _Had they been here…? _Said two looked like they'd been suddenly woken up. Not to mention slightly panicked.

"It took a while to find you," the yellow-eyed Hunter he recognized as Beta said, examining one of his razor-sharp claws. "But the game's over now."

"Well you picked a bad day to mess with us, Beta," Chase growled, going into combat mode.

The Hunter frowned. "That's Alpha too you." _Huh?!_

It didn't look like they had the anti-Monsuno weapon with them, but they were on top of a two-story building. It would bring too much attention. At that moment one of the Hunters lunged, but it was quickly intercepted by Jinja.

All hell broke loose after that.

Chase ran straight at Beta/Alpha, who simply sidestepped. Jinja was fighting hand-to-hand with another Hunter, while Charlemagne and—amazingly—his father handled the other two. Apparently Jeredy knew this was a life-or-death situation. That or a fate much worse than death…

The distraction almost cost him an eye, as he barely backed up in time to avoid being clawed in the face by the new lead-Hunter. "What's wrong, freak?" the Hunter taunted. "Scared?"

Chase clenched a fist. Before he processed what he did, he had punched the Hunter in the snout, hard. He reeled, and Jinja intercepted by tackling him—she had sent the Hunter she had been fighting packing.

Beta/Alpha stood up quickly, glaring death at her. In one swift movement, he had her by the throat. "Bad move, bird-girl," he snarled. "Any last words?"

After that Chase reacted purely on impulse—he needed to save his friend. He flew at Beta/Alpha, grabbing him by the head. The Hunter was heavy as lead—he toppled over, and slammed the back of his neck against a cement rail.

There was a sickening _crack_, and a look of pure shock entered the Hunter's eyes…and they went black in a few seconds. Chase immediately scrambled backwards. The other two Hunters had run off, and Jeredy immediately ran over.

"Chase? Are you alright?" was his first question.

"I…" Chase swallowed hard.

Jinja slowly walked over to where Beta was, nudging him with her shoe. No response. Just what Chase was afraid of.

He gulped again, and barely got out, "I—I think…I just broke his neck."

_I think I just killed him._


End file.
